Israel dealt a major blow to Iran by killing long-time Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah – here’s what could happen next

Israel dealt a major blow to Iran by killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday – but experts say the country is prepared to accept any likely reprisals to fend off looming threats from its neighbors.

Nasrallah, 64, was killed in an Israeli attack on Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut on Friday.

His death, officially confirmed by the terror group on Saturday, immediately sparked a wave of dismay, jubilation and condemnation across the Middle East and beyond.

“It was a very hard decision because we will feel the consequences,” a senior Israeli official told The Post about the decision to take action against Nasrallah.

“But we are playing the long-term game because Israel has to exist for the long term. That’s why we took this action.”

Nasrallah – who led Hezbollah as its sole commander since 1992 – was the “main architect of the killing spree” that Iran has built around Israel, with the ultimate goal of destroying the Jewish state, the official said.

Israel is determined to avoid a ground war with Hezbollah, and in recent days the leadership has concluded that the only way to prevent this is to eliminate Nasrallah.

“He was at the center of the axis,” the insider said, noting that even after Israel destroyed more than half of Hezbollah’s missile and missile inventory last week, “it was clear he wasn’t going to stop.”

Describing him as a “zealot,” the official said Nasrallah was behind the construction of this “noose of death” with infrastructure for a simultaneous ground invasion on many fronts, including tunnel networks, weapons hidden in schools and private homes.

Nasrallah and Hezbollah were supported by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who on Saturday called on Muslims in the region to “stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah by all means and help them confront the…evil regime.” to help Israel.

Nasrallah’s death was a major blow to the Iranian regime, which uses Hezbollah, Hamas and rebel forces elsewhere in the Middle East as a front line in the conflict with Israel.

The fall of the Hezbollah leader could be “a pivotal point” in the fighting, the Israeli official told The Post.

While Iran could replace Nasrallah, some people are “so powerful, so persuasive that they are irreplaceable,” they suggested.

“We are not seeking a major war. “Iran needs to consider what to do,” they said.

Experts agreed that the next phase of the conflict will depend on Iran’s response.

“It was a very impressive operation,” Doron Avital, an Israeli politician who served for Kadima in the Knesset between 2011 and 2013 and was a commander during the 1982 Lebanon War, told The Post on Saturday about the attacks in Beirut.

“This is an important time and a crucial crossroads in the fight and it will be interesting to see what follows,” Avital said. “The next phase is to figure out how Iran will respond and what our strategy will be.”

“The Iranians may now think that they are not as strong as they thought. But they have allies – Russia and China,” he continued. “We (Israel) will also have to decide whether to go ashore with ground troops or not. This is a very crucial moment in which everyone has to reassess their position in the game.”

“Killing a leader is not a magical solution to the terror we face, but eliminating Hezbollah’s leadership is a big step,” agreed Sarit Zehavi, founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center in northern Israel .

Zehavi spoke to the Post on Saturday while running to shelters as sirens warned of possible rocket attacks on Israel from Lebanon.

“But we shouldn’t stop now. If we really want to win, we have to keep taking them all out. It is clear that no diplomatic agreement will help. We have to get rid of all of them and all of their strategic weapons,” Zehavi emphasized.

Jonathan Elkhoury, a Lebanese Christian whose family was forced to flee to Israel when he was young, told the Post that the news of Nasrallah’s killing was “for me one of the happiest days for the Lebanese people.”

“This is one of the most important and transformative days for the Middle East,” said Elkhoury, an independent expert on politics and politics in Lebanon and Israel.

“Hezbollah not only terrorized the Israelis, they also terrorized the Lebanese. When Hezbollah took over Lebanon, it used force to conquer vast areas in the east and south. Lebanon was no longer just for the Lebanese, but just a base for the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“I’m really optimistic. This is a historic day for Lebanon as it begins to limit the Islamic Republic’s control over Lebanon and the Lebanese people.”

But some warned that killing Nasrallah was not a direct path to victory for Israel.

“Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah is the culmination of this total war that Netanyahu promised the Israelis would bring them ‘total victory,'” Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, told NBC News.

“This has proven elusive in Gaza and will prove even stronger in Lebanon,” he said.

“Netanyahu and his allies prematurely celebrate the killings of Hezbollah leaders and top operational commanders, confusing tactical successes with strategic breakthroughs.”

“This moment will be viewed historically as Netanyahu’s ‘mission accomplished’ moment in both Gaza and Lebanon,” he predicted, referring to former President George W. Bush’s premature declaration of victory in Iraq in May 2003.