Ranting Hezbollah cleric Naim Qassem who warned Israel of ‘lengthy battle’ in chilling TV speech is known as as terror group’s new chief after Hassan Nasrallah was worn out in IDF strike

Hezbollah has announced its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem will succeed Hassan Nasrallah as leader of the group one month after the former chief was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Qassem was elected this morning, the Lebanese group said, with Israeli military chiefs undoubtedly pencilling him in at the top of their list of key targets for IDF bombs. 

It comes just weeks after the Shia cleric delivered a ranting 19-minute speech in the wake of Nasrallah’s assassination, vowing that Hezbollah would continue fighting a ‘long battle’ with Israel. 

Qassem’s accession is the first time Hezbollah has had a new leader since February 1992 when Shia cleric Nasrallah took power and oversaw the group in its transition from a militant force into a political party and regional powerhouse. 

Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, was initially tipped to succeed Nasrallah.

But he too was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs shortly after Nasrallah’s assassination.

Another Shia cleric, 71-year-old Qassem has been a fixture in the upper echelon of the political and militant group for more than 30 years.

He was appointed deputy chief in 1991 by the group’s then-secretary general, Abbas al-Musawi, and retained the position when al-Musawi was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack.

After Nasrallah replaced al-Musawi as secretary general, Qassem became one of Hezbollah’s leading spokesmen, regularly conducting interviews with foreign media organisations and even penning a book on the group’s history in 2005. 

But his accession to the position of secretary general sees him inherit a sorry state of affairs, with Hezbollah engaged in bitter fighting with IDF troops in southern Lebanon while Israel‘s Air Force (IAF) continues to batter the capital Beirut with incessant bombing raids. 

Born in Beirut in 1953 to a family from the village of Kfar Fila on the border with Israel, Qassem was one of the founding members of Hezbollah in 1982. 

He was the most senior Hezbollah official to continue making public appearances after Nasrallah largely went into hiding following the group’s 2006 war with Israel, and his rise to Hezbollah chief comes almost exactly one month after Nasrallah died in a bunker underneath the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Nasrallah was killed in a brutal assault on September 27 that saw Israeli F-15I fighter jets drop dozens of munitions on the Hezbollah HQ – a rapid succession of strikes dubbed ‘Operation New Order’ that eliminated half of Hezbollah’s leadership council and decimated its top military command.

Expert analysts said the F-15s delivered 2000lb Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) that are designed to penetrate deep into their targets before exploding, allowing Israel’s air force to eliminate Nasrallah even as he hid in an underground bunker some 60 feet beneath Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb.

That attack came barely a week after the deadly detonation of thousands of booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers and hundreds of radios which killed dozens of people and left thousands injured.

Security-conscious Nasrallah had long avoided public appearances for fear of assassination, remaining largely hidden from view since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.

His movements were heavily restricted and only known to a select few members of his trusted military commanders, while the circle of people he saw in person was very small, according to a source familiar with Nasrallah’s security arrangements.

Since the September 17 pager blasts that injured thousands of his fighters, the Hezbollah chief had become even more vigilant.

Nasrallah chose to skip the funeral of one of his trusted commanders and began releasing pre-recorded speeches rather than going live on air.

But no amount of security precautions would have prevented Israel’s air force from wiping their adversary out in his own backyard after IDF chiefs received ‘real-time intelligence that Nasrallah was gathering with many senior terrorists’, Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said. 

Under the leadership of Nasrallah, Hezbollah fought wars against Israel and took part in the conflict in neighbouring Syria, helping tip the balance of power in favour of President Bashar Assad.

His willingness to stand against Israel, and its main ally in the US, earned him respect and popularity from some of those who remember Israel reaching Beirut during its bid to oust the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from Lebanon in 1982.

When the civil war ended in 1990, Hezbollah began its transformation into a political party and movement, but he ensured its longevity and military strength by holding onto the weapons accumulated through the war and allying ever closer with a post-revolutionary Iran.

Nasrallah was seen as more of a pragmatist than the leaders of Hezbollah in 1982. 

But he retained authority locally by backing up his threats with a willingness to use force.

Ultimately, it was Nasrallah that was credited with the recovery of southern Lebanon, after Israel withdrew in 2000 after years of exchanges.

Within Lebanon, he oversaw the group – radicalised by the events of the 1982 invasion – develop its social responsibilities towards citizens, often filling in on social services where the crippled government fails to act.

Hezbollah also moved away from hostage-taking and suicide bombing in the late 20th century, and under Nasrallah negotiated quick ceasefires in 1996 and 2006.

But a day after Hamas launched their October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, Hezbollah vowed to come to its ally’s defence and began launching rockets across the border on almost a daily basis.

Months of rocket fire and skirmishes along the border erupted into a wider conflict in September, with Israeli officials declaring the IDF would push Hezbollah back away from the Israeli-Lebanon border to allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes in the north. 

The IDF embarked on a brutal bombing campaign, blasting targets across southern Lebanon and in Beirut, before sending troops across the border to clear out border villages of Hezbollah militants.

Born in 1960 into a poor family in Beirut’s impoverished northern suburb of Sharshabouk, Nasrallah was later displaced to south Lebanon.

He studied theology and joined the Amal movement, a Shiite political and paramilitary organization, before becoming one of Hezbollah’s founders.

Hezbollah was formed by Iranian Revolutionary Guard members who came to Lebanon in the summer of 1982 to fight invading Israeli forces. It was the first group that Iran backed and used as a way to export its brand of political Islam.

A resurgent Iran saw the fiery groups emerging in the Lebanese Civil War as a source of opportunity: to stare down Israel and extend its influence towards the Mediterranean.

Lebanon’s unique political structure had long undermined the Shia minority, who were now finding a willing ally in Iran. Suddenly, this group had its voice amplified by backers in Tehran.

Some experts still define Hezbollah as a branch of Iran’s military – operating in Lebanon but working towards the IRGC’s objectives.

Still, it was Nasrallah who built the initial power base as Hezbollah became part of a cluster of Iranian-backed factions and governments known as the Axis of Resistance.

Two days after its leader, 39-year-old Sayyed Abbas Musawi, was killed in an Israeli helicopter gunship raid in south Lebanon, Hezbollah chose Nasrallah as its secretary-general in February 1992.

Five years later, the United States designated Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.

Under Nasrallah, Hezbollah was credited with leading the war of attrition that led to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon in 2000, after an 18-year occupation. Nasrallah’s eldest son, Hadi, was killed in 1997 while fighting against Israeli forces.

After Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, Nasrallah rose to iconic status both within Lebanon and throughout the Arab world. His messages were beamed on Hezbollah’s own radio and satellite TV station.

That status was further cemented when, in 2006, Hezbollah fought Israel to a stalemate during the 34-day war.