00:00What we know so far is that the attack that took place on Friday in the compound where
00:06Hassan Asrallah was with a number of other of his commanders was the largest that the
00:11capital of Eritrea has seen in decades.
00:15There were specifically missiles that targeted the bunkers that Hassan Asrallah was with
00:19his commanders.
00:20A bunker that, a missile, sorry, that could actually penetrate bunkers that are even two
00:25to three stories deep into the earth.
00:29These are called the specific bunker buster missiles from Israel.
00:34And just to give you understand how strong the explosion was, six buildings were actually
00:40destroyed, believing that one of that was the headquarters of Hezbollah in the area.
00:44So we're talking about missiles that could penetrate not only bunkers, but could penetrate
00:48the urban or suburban defenses as Hezbollah has been doing.
00:52Now, there has been a lot of grief and a lot of anger over the death of Hassan Asrallah.
00:57People on the streets, people are chanting that Hezbollah was going to continue to live
01:02on.
01:03The soul of Asrallah is going to live on.
01:05A lot of thousands of people have gathered around and have been saying that although
01:11our leader has been killed, our soul is still there and Israel will pay for what has happened
01:17to Hezbollah and its leader.
01:18So very significant developments, Hassan Asrallah's killing.
01:22What could happen next?
01:24What are the implications now?
01:26Well, we have to understand a little bit who Hassan Asrallah was, a very prominent figure
01:33who took the leadership in 1992.
01:37He pretty much grew the organization from just a small organization into a powerful
01:41political and a very strong military force.
01:45So and a lot of stockpile of ourselves.
01:50And he has seen as a father figure here in Lebanon as the person who pushed the Israelis
01:55way during the war of Israel and Lebanon in 2000.
01:59But he also was a controversial figure.
02:01For some others, he was the one who was responsible, who dragged the country into war with Israel
02:05back in 2006.
02:07Now his passing means that someone else needs to take, become the head of Hezbollah.
02:13And Hashem Safaidin, who is his cousin and a prominent cleric, is a prominent and more
02:19natural successor into the group right now.
02:21But what does that mean also is that he will be taking over, if he will be the next leader
02:26of Hezbollah, an organization that has destroyed infrastructure and a lot of pressure from
02:31international power.
02:32So someone who needs to take responsibility of this organization is someone who needs
02:37to really think clearly, because a lot of pressure is going to be coming towards his
02:41side and the organizations, but also an infrastructure and a limited stockpile of arsenal because
02:48of these Israeli airstrikes.
02:50Thank you, Evangelo.
02:51Evangelo Tsipras, our correspondent in Beirut.
Comments