President Biden says Hassan Nasrallah's death 'measure of justice' for the victims

(This story was updated to add new information.)

President Joe Biden on Saturday called the death of Hassan Nasrallah a “measure of justice” for the people who were killed during the longtime Hezbollah leader's four-decade “reign of terror.”

“His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” the U.S. president said in a written statement. “The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups.”

Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed terrorist group that governs southern Lebanon and its nearly 1 million residents, died on Friday in an Israeli airstrike, according to Israeli military. Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's death on Saturday morning, saying it would continue its battle against Israel "in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people."

Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah escalated this month and have killed about 500 people. For almost a year, the paramilitary group has intensified firing of rockets into northern Israel.

Tensions on that border have increased since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel that killed 1,200 people. Israel responded by launching military strikes on Gaza that have killed about 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry. U.S. officials are concerned that a ratcheting up of tensions could lead to a broader regional conflict in the Middle East and have been trying to negotiate a cease-fire.

Israel's latest round of strikes took place in the “broader context of the conflict” of the Hamas attack, Biden said in his prepared statement, adding, “Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel.”

Vice President Kamala Harris in a written statement said Nasrallah had “American blood on his hands.”

“Across decades, his leadership of Hezbollah destabilized the Middle East and led to the killing of countless innocent people in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and around the world,” she said.

Harris also pledged her support for the security of Israel, saying it had a right to defend itself.

Hezbollah has been linked to numerous American deaths, including from bombings at two U.S. Embassy buildings in the 1980s which killed at least 85 Americans. The group has also killed Saudi diplomats in their residences, detonated bombs outside Israeli Embassies, hijacked airplanes and deployed suicide bombers.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the death of Nasrallah a "modicum of justice," for his victims in a statement sent to USA TODAY.

"The future of the people of Lebanon – a state he helped hold hostage – and the region is more hopeful without him," he said. "The people of Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, and the entire region have suffered enough."

Cardin said diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation that would threaten the Middle East should be a priority and called for the negotiation of a "ceasefire that protects innocent Israeli and Lebanese citizens and secures a broader agreement to end the conflict in Gaza, surge humanitarian assistance, and bring the hostages home now."

Biden said he’d asked his Secretary of Defense Lloyd James Austin to further “enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.” The Pentagon earlier this week said it was bolstering forces in the region.

Earlier Saturday, Austin posted on X that he had spoken to Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant twice about the strikes in Lebanon and added that he expressed his support for Israel to defend itself against “Iranian backed terrorist groups.”

Biden said the goal of the United States is to “de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means.”

“In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the U.N. Security Council for a cease-fire and the release of hostages,” the president said. “Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon. It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.”

Contributing: Dan Morrison

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hezbollah leader's death: US supports Israel's right to defend itself