How does Beirut respond to Nasrallah's death?

As news spread on Saturday that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had been killed in his underground bunker in Beirut by an Israeli airstrike, people began quietly pondering the possibility that Lebanon's political structure could be about to transform for the first time in more than three decades. This in turn increased the possibility that closed doors would soon be opened throughout the Middle East.

Those who fought against Hezbollah — not just Israelis, but also Lebanese across the country's divided sects, as well as Syrians and Yemenis — can see the tantalizing possibility that the Shiite movement's dominance may be at an end. Many others worry that a sudden power vacuum could return Lebanon to the kind of civil war that tormented its people for 15 years before Hezbollah emerged in the early 1980s.

Nasrallah was more than just a political leader. After 32 years in power, he has become synonymous with Hezbollah, the most armed non-state actor in the world and the linchpin of Iran's “axis of resistance” to Israel and the United States.

You could feel the gravity of the moment as soon as the bombs fell on Friday evening – the largest bombing launched by Israel on Beirut since Hezbollah attacked Israel on October 8. The attack was heard and felt miles away from where it struck on the southern outskirts of the city. . The deep sound like rolling thunder that shook the ground continued for several seconds. People on the street looked anxiously towards the sky and grabbed their phones, calling to check on their loved ones. Car alarms went off.

Rumors started almost immediately: that Nasrallah was dead, that he was in hiding, and that civil war was brewing. The same television clips of the bomb site were shown throughout the night and the next morning, showing a pile of smoldering rubble and twisted steel. If Israel had scored, as it claimed, a direct hit on Hezbollah's underground command center, believing that anyone inside could have survived would be impossible.

Beirut turned into a city on Saturday that turned into main squares filled with distraught people fleeing all the places Israel bombed overnight, from Beirut to the Bekaa Valley to southern Lebanon. Families were huddled together, their eyes hollow and frightened. It appears that no safe places are left. Some of the displaced were Syrians, who fled the horror of civil war in their country a decade ago, and are now homeless again.

Nasrallah has long been a central figure, the most powerful man in Lebanon and Israel's greatest enemy. He was loved, hated and emulated by anti-Western rebel leaders across the Middle East – and his absence left many Lebanese feeling deeply perplexed. There were occasional bursts of gunfire throughout the day. It was impossible to determine whether it had come from mourners or revelers.

Immediately after Hezbollah announced Nasrallah's death on Saturday afternoon, impromptu marches broke out, with people chanting in unison Labbaika ya Nasrallah – “We are at your service, Nasrallah.” Normally, any Hezbollah activity is carefully regulated by the party itself, which is a strict and hierarchical organization. But with the group leaderless and in disarray, no one seems to know where to turn for guidance.

Some Hezbollah loyalists have directed their anger at Iran, the group's sponsor and arms supplier, which has not come to their aid after weeks of punitive air strikes. “Iran has sold us out,” I heard a man say in a Beirut café on Saturday afternoon, a phrase widely repeated on social media among Hezbollah sympathizers. Other Hezbollah supporters appear to attack Syrian refugees, who are suspected of providing targeting information to Israel. Video clips have been circulating online, purporting to show Shiite men brutally beating Syrians with batons.

“It's an earthquake that restructures perceptions of power,” Paul Salem, vice president for international engagement at the Middle East Institute, told me. Salem said those who might benefit from Nasrallah's death include Nabih Berri, the leader of the rival Shiite party known as Amal, and former Christian warlords such as Samir Geagea.

Outside Lebanon, some of Hezbollah's enemies celebrated publicly. In Syria's rebel-controlled Idlib province, people danced in the streets and distributed candy on Friday evening as rumors spread of Nasrallah's death. Hezbollah helped support Bashar al-Assad's regime during the Syrian civil war and killed many opposition fighters. Some Iranians who oppose the Islamic government in their country have posted sarcastic comments online, as have members of the Iranian diaspora. Iran has transferred vast sums of its people's money to support Hezbollah, Hamas, and other groups opposed to Israel across the Middle East.

Most of Hezbollah's internal enemies maintained a cautious silence on Saturday. But in Martyrs' Square in central Beirut, a young man walked past a group of displaced people — many of whom were Hezbollah loyalists — and shouted “Mister, cut your mother,” an obscene insult that roughly translates to “Nasrallah, fuck your mother.” Immediately, angry shouts erupted in response, and someone rushed from the crowd near a nearby mosque and shot the young man in the leg.

This incident – reported to me by several witnesses – frightened the displaced people in the square, although the prevailing emotions were shock and sadness.

Nasrallah “was a great man; “There was no one like him,” a 41-year-old woman named Zahra told me. “We are afraid of where things will go now. We could be bombed in the streets.”

Al-Zahra's face was wet with tears. She was wearing a black and white sports suit and a headscarf, and sat next to her two sisters. They had come from the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah was based and where the bombs had fallen, early that morning. No one was willing to give them a ride, and they ended up paying 4 million Lebanese pounds — more than $44 — to a taxi driver for the 15-minute trip to Martyrs' Square. Petty war exploitation is rampant in Lebanon.

While Zahra was speaking, her sister Munaida interrupted her from time to time and repeated: “I don’t believe it. I don’t think he died.”

Many people said the same thing, on the streets and on social media. One of the pernicious consequences of Israel's year-long campaign of technology strikes on Lebanon — including the detonation of thousands of electronic pager bombs earlier this month — is that no one trusts their phones. People have become less connected, more skeptical, and more fearful.

The bomb that killed Nasrallah also destroyed six residential towers, and it seems likely that it killed large numbers of people. But the information slowly leaked out over the weekend because Hezbollah closed off the area for security reasons.

One of the displaced people in Martyrs' Square, a 39-year-old Palestinian woman named Najah who lived in the suburb, told me that she had narrowly survived the bombing. She said she was home with her three children when the series of bombs fell just before sunset, and “it felt like the missiles were right above our heads.” She said she collapsed to the ground, expecting another bomb to kill her and her children. When that didn't happen, she gathered the kids and ran outside. It was chaos. The streets were full of people. “We were running,” she said. “The sounds of bombs were still in my head.”

Like many others, Najah cried openly when speaking about Nasrallah. “He defends us as Palestinians,” she said. “He did not accept injustice.”

Nasrallah may have presented himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause, but he has turned large swaths of his country into a forward base for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was willing to sacrifice anyone who got in his way, including a group of prominent Lebanese politicians and journalists. In 2005, a massive car bomb exploded on the Beirut waterfront, killing former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 other people. A team of international investigators concluded that Hezbollah members were responsible for the bombing.

However, Nasrallah was admired even by some who resented the way he held the Lebanese state hostage for decades. He was charismatic, unlike many other leaders in a region full of Islamic extremists and brutal dictators. He was known throughout the Arab world for delivering elegantly composed speeches, starting out quietly and then moving toward finger-waving violence. Along the way, he could be funny, even vicious, as he relentlessly promoted hatred and violence. He had an instinct for drama.

During the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the movement timed the release of one of its pre-recorded statements to coincide with a missile attack on an Israeli ship. Nasrallah told his audience: “The surprises I promised you will begin now.” “Now in the middle of the sea, facing Beirut, is the Israeli warship… look at it burning.”

Everyone recognized the sincerity of Nasrallah's enthusiasm, even if its results – a long series of devastating wars and terrorist bombings – were horrific. In 1997, Nasrallah gave a speech just hours after his eldest son was killed in a clash with Israeli soldiers. He did not address his son's death, but his face registered a battle to hide his emotions as he spoke. He said: “My martyr son chose this path of his own free will.”

Whether that is true for his son or not, it is certainly true for Nasrallah.

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