25 Facts About Hassan Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel Defense Forces in February 1992.

Hasan Nasrallah was born the ninth of ten children into a Shia family in Bourj Hammoud, Matn District on 31 August 1960.

Hassan Nasrallah's father, Abdul Karim Nasrallah, was born in Bazourieh, a village in Jabal Amel located near Tyre and worked as a fruit and vegetables seller.

Hassan Nasrallah attended the al-Najah school and later a public school in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Sin el Fil Beirut.

In 1975, the Lebanese Civil War forced the family, including Hassan Nasrallah who was 15 at the time, to move to their ancestral home in Bazourieh, where Hassan Nasrallah completed his secondary education at the public school of Sour.

Hassan Nasrallah studied at the Shi'a seminary in the Beqaa Valley town of Baalbek.

In 1976, aged sixteen, Hassan Nasrallah travelled to Iraq where he was admitted into Ayatollah al-Sadr's seminary in Najaf.

Hassan Nasrallah was expelled from Iraq, along with dozens of other Lebanese students, in 1978.

Hassan Nasrallah was forced to return to Lebanon in 1979, by that time having completed the first part of his study, as Saddam Hussein was expelling many Shia's, including Ruhollah Khomeini and Abbas Musawi.

Hassan Nasrallah joined Hezbollah after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

In 1989, Hassan Nasrallah traveled to Qom, Iran, where he furthered his religious studies.

In 1991, Hassan Nasrallah returned to Lebanon and replaced Musawi as Hezbollah's leader after the latter was killed by an Israeli airstrike the following year.

Hassan Nasrallah became the leader of Hezbollah after the Israelis assassinated the previous leader, Musawi, in 1992.

Consequently, Hassan Nasrallah is credited in Lebanon and the Arab world for ending the Israeli occupation of the South of Lebanon, something which has greatly bolstered the party's political standing within Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah played a major role in a complex prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah in 2004, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners being freed and many human remains, including that of his son, being returned to Lebanon.

The agreement was described across the Arab world as a magnificent victory for Hezbollah, and Hassan Nasrallah was personally praised for achieving these gains.

Hassan Nasrallah negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding with the Free Patriotic Movement headed by Michel Aoun, the former premier and a Maronite Christian.

On 3 August 2006, Hasan Hassan Nasrallah vowed to strike Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israel's bombardment of Lebanon's capital.

Hassan Nasrallah added that Hezbollah forces were inflicting heavy casualties on Israeli ground troops.

On 25 May 2013, Hassan Nasrallah announced that Hezbollah is fighting in the Syrian civil war against "Islamist extremists" and "pledged that his group will not allow Syrian militants to control areas that border Lebanon".

Hassan Nasrallah confirmed that Hezbollah was fighting in the strategic Syrian town of Qusair on the same side as the Syrian army.

In July 2014, Hassan Nasrallah's nephew was killed fighting in Syria.

Hassan Nasrallah is quoted as saying on receiving the news of his son's death "I am proud to be the father of one of the martyrs".

Almalaf, an Iraqi news source on 15 October 2008, quoted sources in Lebanon saying Hezbollah leader Hasan Hassan Nasrallah had been poisoned the previous week and that he was saved by Iranian doctors who went to Lebanon to treat him.

On 25 October 2008 in an interview with the Hezbollah owned Al-Manar channel, Hassan Nasrallah denied the assassination attempt, accusing the Israelis and Americans of fabricating the story and considering it as part of the ongoing psychological war against Hezbollah that aimed to imply that the party was suffering from internal disputes and assassination plots.