Hassan Nasrallah’s death will reshape Lebanon and the Middle East

THE SILENCE was deafening. By mid-afternoon on September 28th it had been almost 24 hours since Israel tried to assassinate Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, a Lebanese Shia militia. The Israeli army declared him dead that morning. But Hizbullah said nothing, neither about his fate nor about the enormous strike on its headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Even its media outriders, usually a pugnacious bunch, were stunned speechless. The group finally confirmed his death at around 2.30pm.