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00:00We just received a confirmation by Hezbollah and an official statement sent by their media
00:05department to media institutions in Lebanon and around the world, and to supporters as
00:11well.
00:12I'm going to—I pulled up a quick translation of that initial statement in Arabic.
00:18The statement confirms the death of Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
00:24It mourns him as a great leader.
00:25According to the statement, he has joined the eternal luminous convoy of the martyrs
00:32of Karbala.
00:33So a lot of reference to Shia doctrines, faithful path of the prophets and martyrs and imams.
00:40It also mentions how he led Hezbollah in different times.
00:44In particular, he referred to his succession to the former Secretary General of Hezbollah
00:52in 1992, throughout the period of the withdrawal of the Israeli army in 2000.
00:58The statement also mentions what they called the divine victory of the 2006 war and other
01:03battles of honor and sacrifice up to the current struggle in support of Palestine, Gaza, and
01:10the oppressed Palestinian people.
01:11Again, this is the terminology used by Hezbollah and its official mourning of its Secretary
01:16General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike yesterday in Beirut's
01:22southern suburbs.
01:25Does that statement mention who will replace Hassan Nasrallah as leader?
01:32The statement does not mention any succession plans for Hassan Nasrallah and for the leadership
01:38of the organization, and it's only focused on the fact that they are mourning him as
01:43a great leader.
01:44However, one interesting paragraph in the statement is that the leadership of Hezbollah
01:48pledges to resume holiest and dearest martyr in our journey, filled with sacrifices, and
01:55that Hezbollah will continue its jihad against the enemy, referring to Israel, in support
02:01of Gaza and Palestine and in defense of Lebanon.
02:06So just a mourning statement for Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah and
02:12a pledge to continue his path.
02:15This is according to the official Hezbollah statement.
02:18So we have Hassan Nasrallah confirmed dead by Hezbollah.
02:22We have a week of escalation.
02:25What is the mood like there in the capital, Beirut?
02:29Still a lot of uncertainty.
02:31We're yet to hear from how their streets are going to react to this official announcement,
02:35in particular the hundreds of thousands of supporters of Hezbollah, who have always seen
02:43Nasrallah as a great figure that led them over the past 32 years.
02:48So we're still waiting to see any reactions possibly in the street, and also reactions
02:53from other Lebanese factions and political parties in the next few hours.