Hezbollah Chief Agreed To Ceasefire Before Being Killed: Lebanon Minister

Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon on September 27

Beirut:

Former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire shortly before he was killed in an air strike in Beirut last week, Lebanon Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said today. Speaking to an American public broadcaster, Bou Habib said that they also informed the US and French representatives about the ceasefire decision.

Hassan Nasrallah was in a bunker in the southern suburb of Dahiyeh when it was hit by Israeli bombs on September 27. While Hezbollah’s statement confirming Nasrallah’s death did not say how exactly he was killed, Reuters said his body had no direct wounds and that it appeared the cause of death was blunt trauma from the force of the blast.

“He (Nasrallah) agreed, he agreed (to the ceasefire),” Bou Habib told PBS, adding that Lebanon had fully consented to the ceasefire after consulting with Hezbollah, and communicated this to the US and France.

“The Lebanese House Speaker, Mr Nabih Berri, consulted with Hezbollah and we informed the Americans and the French about the agreement. They told us that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu also agreed to the statement issued by both presidents,” he said.

The United States, France, and other allies unveiled a 21-day ceasefire on September 25, after President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. But Netanyahu had rejected the ceasefire proposal a day later, ordering the military to continue “fighting with full force”.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Warned Hezbollah Chief To Flee

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in the Israeli strike, Reuters reported on Wednesday. 

After the Hezbollah members were attacked with pagers on September 17, Khamenei had sent a message with an envoy to beseech Nasrallah to leave for Iran, citing intelligence reports that suggested Israel had operatives within Hezbollah and was planning to kill him, one of the sources, a senior Iranian official, told Reuters.

The messenger, the official said, was a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was also killed with Nasrallah in the bunker.

Israel on Tuesday began what it labelled as a “limited” ground incursion against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Over 1,900 people have so far been killed and about 9,000 injured in Lebanon since Hezbollah engaged in cross-border fire with Israel after Hamas attacked Israeli towns on October 7 last year, triggering a war in Gaza as well.