SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Hezbollah has confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut. Hezbollah is the dominant political party in Lebanon. It also has a militant branch, which has been in conflict with Israel for decades. Nasrallah's death is a momentous event with far-reaching implications for the region and the world. We're joined now by our correspondent in Beirut, Jane Arraf, and Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Thank you both for being with us.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Shouting in non-English language).
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Thanks, Scott.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: Jane, let's begin with you there in Beirut. What's the reaction?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Shouting in non-English language).
ARRAF: Oh, gosh. Where do I begin? We are on the Corniche, where some people have left after airstrikes in the southern suburbs. Some of the people have even stayed here overnight because there's nowhere to go. And as soon as there was confirmation that Nasrallah had been killed...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Shouting in non-English language).
ARRAF: ...I don't know if you can hear the woman shouting behind me...
SIMON: We can, yeah.
ARRAF: ...But this started as weeping. There were women weeping in cars. I saw one driving with a poodle next to her, who was sobbing at the news. A lot of the women here have - just can't stop crying. One of them was leaning over the metal railing and shouting at the sea...
(CROSSTALK)
ARRAF: ...Nasrallah, say it, Nasrallah. Where did you go?
(CROSSTALK)
ARRAF: But now...
SIMON: We may have lost the line with Jane Arraf. Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, what's the reaction been there?
ESTRIN: Well, here in Tel Aviv, my colleague, Hadeel Al-Shalchi, recorded music blaring from a Tel Aviv apartment, celebrating the death of Nasrallah. Take a listen.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YALLA YA NASRALLAH")
FRISHMAN AND THE PIONEERS: (Singing in non-English language)
ESTRIN: This is a song that came out several years ago in Hebrew. It translates to Nasrallah, we'll take you down, God willing. We'll send you back to God, along with all of Hezbollah. So there's a lot of jubilation among many Israelis. And the military has published an audio recording it said was of Israel's Air Force chief speaking to a fighter pilot who participated in the operation killing Nasrallah. And the major general said, you've brought a presentation of victory. I hope - we very much hope we have cut down this terror organization.
SIMON: Jane Arraf, who is back with us from Beirut, what are the implications of Nasrallah's death for Hezbollah?
ARRAF: Well, it's certainly a severe blow. I mean, the fact that he has been the head of Hezbollah for 32 years - sorry, we're being told to move along, so we're going to do that - head of Hezbollah for 32 years. And that's not like being the chairman of a corporation. He is worshipped, in a sense, among many, many people.
What that means for the organization itself - he has a successor. Successor had been named years ago. So there will be somebody stepping in, but he certainly won't be Hassan Nasrallah. And as we've seen with all of the airstrikes, the exploding pagers, the remarkable intelligence information that must have led to this targeting, Hezbollah does appear to be reeling from the latest attacks.
SIMON: Daniel Estrin, in Tel Aviv, how does the Israeli leadership read this because on the one hand, they've killed the leader of Hezbollah? On the other hand, they must worry about what comes next.
ESTRIN: Well, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually approved this operation as he just finished addressing the United Nations General Assembly. He was in New York. His office released a photo of him on the phone there approving the operation. So there is a lot of - there's a feeling of major success in Israel.
I've been speaking to observers in the region. One of them is Amer Al Sabaileh, who is a Jordanian security expert. He's been a close observer of Hezbollah. He says the very fact that Nasrallah was killed with other Hezbollah leadership, as Israel has said, shows that he took a major risk to be there with his commanders in Lebanon, after these last two weeks of really crippling Israeli attacks, killing top commanders of the organization. And he says it shows the group was facing a major crisis. Have a listen.
AMER AL SABAILEH: The level of shock among Hezbollah cannot be measured, actually, because simply they never expected that Israel will be the one who initiate and the one who continue and the one who does not stop attacking Hezbollah.
ESTRIN: I will say that Israeli observers are warning this morning that even if Nasrallah is dead, Hezbollah still possesses a lot of weaponry to threaten Israel.
SIMON: And let me ask you both, in turn, beginning with Jane Arraf there in Beirut, what are the implications for the conflict widening now? Obviously, Iran's name will get mentioned a lot.
ARRAF: It will. And Iran has indicated for - going back to the beginning of the war in Gaza last year, that it really, really wants to avoid a war that it doesn't believe that it would emerge unharmed from. So we haven't heard very much from Iran about this, but we do know that Iran will act very, very carefully about any possible response. It seems to have been acting very carefully for the last week or so.
The Lebanese are worried about it as well. This morning, one of the Lebanese officials said that they had made a decision that Iranian aircraft could not land at the Beirut Airport. And that was after Israel made clear that if it saw Iranian cargo planes in any case landing that it would feel free to see the Beirut Airport as a target.
We're not going to return, it doesn't seem like, to the civil war era here. This is not a case where it seems as if Lebanese are going to be fighting each other in the streets. As you pointed out, Hezbollah is still very strong - tens of thousands of fighters. But the killing really dramatically changes so many things here.
SIMON: And Daniel Estrin, I want to ask you how this is not only read in Tel Aviv, but what - how does this promote or blunt talk of a cease-fire, which the U.S. has been urging?
(SOUNDBITE OF SIRENS)
ESTRIN: Right. The U.S. had put forth a proposal for a 21-day temporary cease-fire in Lebanon that could lead to diplomatic talks and that could also lead not only to diplomacy and a cease-fire in Lebanon, but also in Gaza. But of course, cease-fire talks on the Gaza front have all but frozen, and the weight has now shifted to Lebanon.
We have not seen Hezbollah and Iran retaliating now with significant strikes across Israel, following this escalation, following this killing of Nasrallah and in recent weeks and days. But the Israeli army has just now announced that they will be restricting gatherings of more than a thousand people in public gatherings in central Israel. And that signals that Israel is bracing itself potentially for more strikes from - it could be Hezbollah and even farther afield in the region - Yemen, Iraq and other militias that Iran supports.
But this is showing that Israel does not fear the consequences of its strikes as it continues escalating those strikes in Lebanon, as we've seen in the past two weeks. Some Israeli observers say this provides a brief window of opportunity for Israel perhaps to develop an exit strategy with regards to the conflict in Lebanon.
SIMON: Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, Jane Arraf in Beirut, thanks so much for being on the job for us there.
ARRAF: Thank you.
ESTRIN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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