For many Arabs, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah was a villain, rather than a resistance hero

Open this photo in gallery:

First came the videos of Syrian rebels dancing and firing in the air, celebrating mere rumours that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had been killed in an Israeli air strike.

Then came the memes – speeding around WhatsApp channels popular with Lebanese opponents of Hezbollah – of Mr. Nasrallah surrounded by bikini-clad women, a reference to the 72 virgins that some followers of Islam believe wait in heaven for those who die as “martyrs.” The inference was clear: The Hezbollah leader could have his virgins, as long as he was gone from Lebanon.

On Saturday morning, Hezbollah confirmed that Mr. Nasrallah had indeed been killed in a massive Israeli bombing of the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Charismatic and shrewd: A look at longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

It was Hezbollah’s long conflict with Israel that made Mr. Nasrallah infamous in capitals around the world. The battle with what he always called the “Zionist enemy” was what he wanted to be remembered for – but many Lebanese and Arabs will also recall him as a sectarian warrior who turned Hezbollah’s guns on them just as quickly when it suited Mr. Nasrallah’s masters in Tehran.

For a while, Mr. Nasrallah was indeed a hero across the Arab world. Under his leadership, Hezbollah helped force the Israeli military to withdraw from south Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year stay.

His greatest achievement, in the eyes of his followers, came in 2006 when Hezbollah fought Israel to a standstill in a 33-day war. In the aftermath of the conflict, which began with Hezbollah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, Mr. Nasrallah was hailed throughout the Arab world as the only leader who had successfully stood up to Israel, making the rest of the region’s kings and dictators look weak in comparison.

But rather than the Arab nationalist many hoped for, Mr. Nasrallah repeatedly proved himself to be a willing servant of Iran and a merciless participant in the conflict that split the Muslim world along Sunni-Shia lines.

While draping himself in the Palestinian cause, Mr. Nasrallah gradually assumed an iron grip over Lebanon. First came the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri – a popular pro-Western and Sunni politician whose murder was found by an international tribunal to have been carried out by Hezbollah operatives. Then in 2008 came an even blunter show of force as Hezbollah fighters occupied Sunni neighbourhoods of Beirut, only withdrawing after a new government was formed that effectively gave the Shia militia veto power over Lebanon’s direction.

Three years later, as the Arab Spring swept across the region, toppling dictatorships in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, Mr. Nasrallah sent thousands of fighters into neighbouring Syria to help save the teetering regime of Bashar al-Assad. In siding with Mr. al-Assad, a key Iranian ally, Hezbollah found itself at odds with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which backed the armed uprising against the Syrian regime.

Open this photo in gallery:

The Syrian rebels who danced at the news of Mr. Nasrallah’s death believe they were on the verge of liberating their country from dictatorship when Hezbollah’s battle-hardened fighters waded into the fray.

In Lebanon, too, many Sunnis, Christians, Druze – as well as a minority of the country’s Shia population – have long wondered about the alternate future their country might have had if Mr. Nasrallah had agreed to give up Hezbollah’s weapons following the Israeli withdrawal, rather than dragging the country into one war after another over the past 24 years.

Another war of Mr. Nasrallah’s choosing – his decision on Oct. 8 to open a “solidarity front” and to begin firing rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas, a day after the Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 Israelis in a stunning invasion of southern Israel – proved to be his last.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as Israel seeks to destroy Hamas and bring home the more than 100 hostages the group still holds.

Though Mr. Nasrallah had always said that Hezbollah would stop its attacks the same day that Israel ended its war on Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that his country could no longer live with Mr. Nasrallah holding de facto power in Lebanon.

Israelis – like many Lebanese and Syrians – were also celebrating the passing of a hated and feared enemy. “The elimination of Nasrallah is one of the most significant actions in Israel’s history, and we will not stop,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Saturday.

But those with long enough memories know that Israel and Hezbollah – which was formed in response to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon – have been here before. On Feb. 16, 1992, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at the motorcade of Hezbollah’s then-leader, Abbas Musawi, killing Mr. Musawi along with his wife and five-year-old son and four others.

Mr. Musawi’s death brought Mr. Nasrallah to power, and the bloodshed continued.