Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah choked to death in a bunker following the Israeli airstrike on his hideout in Lebanon on Friday, according to an Israeli media report.
The 64-year-old’s body is believed to have been intact when it was pulled from the rubble, suggesting he had not sustained physical wounds as the building around him exploded.
Instead, he had suffocated as toxic fumes leeched into the underground shelter where he was hiding, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Sunday evening.
The report suggested he was likely to have died in “agony” as the fumes and smoke from the explosions gradually filled the buried room, and made breathing impossible.
Nasrallah had led the militant Islamist group—deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S.—for decades. Although based in Lebanon, the organization enjoyed the backing of Iran and had also become a powerful political faction in Lebanon.
Nasrallah was opposed to the very existence of the state of Israel and had launched rocket attacks on the nation after Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, sparking a war between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced they had “eliminated” Nasrallah on Saturday along with a number of other commanders who served him.
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The move came after several other Hezbollah members were killed as their pagers exploded, an attack that Hezbollah blamed on Israel.
Experts now fear an all-out war could erupt in the Middle East, with IDF tanks amassing along Lebanon’s border.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been close friends with Nasrallah, has called for vengeance and urged Muslims to support Lebanon and Hezbollah against Israel.
However, Iran’s leadership are said to be divided about how to respond, with some calling for restraint in order to avoid war, according to The New York Times, which said it had interviewed some senior Iranian figures. The newspaper noted that the Supreme Leader’s statement referenced supporting Hezbollah against Israel, rather than vowing to take direct action himself.
Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati has ordered three days mourning and called for the country to unite in the “face of aggression.”
While U.S. President Joe Biden described the death of Nasrallah as a “measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans.” He was “responsible [ … for] a four-decade reign of terror,” he added, although he also appealed for restraint on all sides. “Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means,” Biden stressed.
Nasrallah’s body was recovered on Sunday, and sources claimed the body had no direct wounds; leading to an initial theory that the cause of death was blunt trauma from the force of the blast, Reuters reported.
However, a new theory has now emerged that Nasrallah’s bunker had not been adequately ventilated and the bombings resulted in gases entering the room causing him to “suffocate,” Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Sunday.
The IDF did not specify an exact cause of death for Nasrallah, but posted on social media site X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday: “Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and one of its founders, was eliminated yesterday, together with Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders.”
Newsweek has reached out by email to the IDF seeking further information and comment.