Above photo: A person looking at the destruction in the place where Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in Choueifat, southeast of Beirut, Lebanon. AP.
US President Joe Biden issued a statement praising Israel for the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, calling it “a measure of justice” for the victims of Hezbollah’s actions, including Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians. The assassination, carried out by Israeli airstrikes, has killed dozens of civilians in addition to Nasrallah and threatens a full-scale regional war.
The US statement has sparked sharp criticism by legal experts who argue that the endorsement of extrajudicial killings undermines international law. Legal scholars and human rights advocates have expressed concern over Biden’s framing of the operation, calling it a dangerous precedent that disregards the rule of law.
Ramy Abdu, Chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, was among those who condemned Biden’s response, emphasizing that true justice cannot be achieved through extrajudicial killings. “The accepted method of achieving justice is not through assassinations but through international courts and legal mechanisms,” Abdu stated. He argued that by endorsing such killings, the US government is normalizing actions that violate international human rights norms. “This is America’s concept of justice—extrajudicial killings without accountability,” Abdu added.
Noura Erakat, a human rights attorney and Associate Professor at Rutgers University, strongly criticized the White House’s response, arguing that it reflects a broader trend in US policy to reshape the laws of war in the context of the so called war on terror. “The statement from the White House exemplifies how, over two decades, the US has worked to alter the laws of war, applying them differently to Western powers while treating the Global South as exceptions,” Erakat said.
She further explained that framing Nasrallah’s assassination as “a measure of justice” dehumanizes Lebanese civilians and undermines Lebanon’s sovereignty. Erakat stressed that such language erases the distinction between military targets and civilians, effectively justifying the destruction of civilian infrastructure under the guise of self-defense. “If this happened in Tel Aviv, the international community would call it ‘barbaric’ and ‘reckless,’ but when it happens in Lebanon, it is celebrated as justice,” she noted.
Erakat also connected Biden’s statement to a long history of US practices that bypass international legal norms. She argued that the US has expanded the concept of self-defense to include preventive, rather than merely preemptive, strikes. “This has led to a global pattern of extrajudicial assassinations, drone strikes, and covert operations in countries like Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia, often without any legal oversight,” she said.
The professor also highlighted how the US has used its global “war on terror” to justify actions like torture, indefinite detention, and the invasion of sovereign countries without United Nations Security Council authorization. “Yet, the US continues to claim the moral high ground, dictating what is and isn’t terrorism, while endorsing acts that violate international law,” she concluded.
Israel had dropped approximately 85 bunker-buster bombs on an entire block, each containing one ton of explosives, as part of the mission to eliminate Nasrallah. Four buildings were entirely leveled, murdering everyone inside including civilians.
Biden, Harris Release Statements Strongly Backing Israeli Killing Of Nasrallah
On Saturday, both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris released statements strongly backing the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, which was carried out using US-provided 2,000-pound bombs.
President Biden said in a statement that Nasrallah’s death was “a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.” The president said the US “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups.”
Biden said that he ordered Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to send additional military assets to the region. “I directed my Secretary of Defense to further enhance the defense posture of US military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war,” he said.
Biden claimed that he seeks de-escalation in the region, but his administration has continued to provide military aid and other types of support for Israel since it began its dramatic escalation in Lebanon.
Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, released a similar statement, saying that “Hezbollah’s victims have a measure of justice.” The vice president said she has an “unwavering commitment to the security of Israel.”
“I will always support Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis,” Harris added.
Harris also claimed that the administration was working for a diplomatic solution. But the day before Nasrallah was killed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a US-backed ceasefire proposal, and Israel said it secured $8.7 billion in new military aid from the US.
An Israeli official told ABC News that Israel decided to kill Nasrallah because he wouldn’t separate the situation at the Israel-Lebanon border from Gaza. Hezbollah had been clear that it would stop its attacks on northern Israel if there was a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Israeli airstrikes that killed Nasrallah leveled multiple residential buildings in Beirut. The attack also killed Abbas Nilforoushan, a senior commander from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Tehran is vowing his death will not go “unanswered.”
The killing of Nasrallah and other Israeli escalations in Lebanon could lead to direct US intervention since the US has vowed it would defend Israel if it faces a large-scale attack from Iran. US troops in Iraq and Syria could also come under attack from local Shia militias in response to US support for the killing of Nasrallah and the slaughtering of civilians in Lebanon.
Israeli airstrikes have continued to pound Beirut and other areas of Lebanon. The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 33 people were killed and over 190 people were injured by Israeli airstrikes on Saturday. On Sunday, the ministry said at least 21 people were killed and 47 were wounded by Israeli attacks on eastern Lebanon’s Baalbek region.