Israel has killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a powerful air strike in Beirut, dealing a heavy blow to the group as it reels from an escalating campaign of Israeli attacks.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had eliminated Nasrallah in the strike on the group’s central command headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday.
Hezbollah confirmed he had been killed, without saying how.
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Nasrallah’s death is a major blow to both Hezbollah and Iran, removing an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Iran’s network of allied groups in the Arab world.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Nasrallah’s killing as a necessary step toward “changing the balance of power in the region for years to come”.
“Nasrallah was not a terrorist, he was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said in a statement, warning of challenging days ahead.
US President Joe Biden described Nasrallah’s death as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of US citizens, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the US fully supported Israel’s right to self-defence.
A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, was also killed in the Israeli attacks in Beirut on Friday, Iranian media reported.
Sources told Reuters that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been moved to a secure location in Iran following Nasrallah’s killing.
Strikes continued on Beirut’s southern suburbs throughout the early evening on Saturday, according to a Reuters live broadcast, sending large clouds of smoke over the city.
One Israeli strike hit an industrial area 500 metres from Beirut airport buildings, a security source told Reuters.
The airport continued to operate normally, according to Middle East Airlines boss Mohammad al-Hout.
More than 1000 people have been killed and more than 6000 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks in the past two weeks, the health ministry said, and about one million Lebanese have been displaced by the strikes, including hundreds of thousands since Friday, Nasser Yassin, the minister co-ordinating the government’s crisis response, told Reuters on Saturday.
Israel said it killed a senior Hezbollah intelligence official in a strike on southern Beirut, naming him as Hassan Khalil Yassin.
Hezbollah has made no mention of this.
In Israel, air raid sirens sounded across the centre of the country – including Tel Aviv – and large bangs were heard after a missile was fired from Yemen and intercepted, according to the Israeli military.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it would continue its battle against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people”.
Iran’s Khamenei said Nasrallah’s death would be avenged and his path in fighting Israel would be pursued by other militants.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country was facing the threat of danger, without mentioning the death of Nasrallah.
His office later announced three days of mourning for the Hezbollah chief.
Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting a conflict in parallel with Israel’s war against the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’ attack on Israel last October 7, in a cross-border confrontation that has sharply escalated in recent days.
Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV aired verses from the Koran after Nasrallah’s death was announced.
Bursts of gunfire were heard in Beirut and Lebanon’s army deployed tanks in the city centre, according to Reuters witnesses.
The Israeli military said Nasrallah was eliminated in a “targeted strike” on the group’s underground headquarters below a residential building in Dahiyeh – a Hezbollah-controlled southern suburb of Beirut.
It said he was killed along with senior Hezbollah official Ali Karaki and other commanders.
Hezbollah gave no immediate indication of who might succeed Nasrallah.
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine has long been regarded as heir apparent.
The group has not issued any statement on Safieddine’s status or that of any other Hezbollah leaders – apart from Nasrallah – since the attack.
Hezbollah continued its cross-border rocket fire on Saturday, setting off sirens and sending residents running for shelter deep inside Israel.
Israeli missile defences blocked some of them and there was no immediate report of injuries.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel’s war was not with the Lebanese people, calling Nasrallah the “murderer of thousands of Israelis and foreign citizens”.
Gallant held talks late on Saturday about possibly expanding Israel’s military offensive on its northern front, his office said.
with AP