Lebanon’s Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed and vowed to continue the battle against Israel.
Israel said earlier that it had killed the Hezbollah leader in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs a day earlier, in what would be a devastating blow to the group as it reels from an escalating campaign of Israeli attacks.
Nasrallah’s death marks a major blow not only to Hezbollah but also to its alleged backers in Iran. He was a leading figure in the Tehran-backed “Axis of Resistance”, helping to project Iranian influence across the Middle East.
The Israeli military said in a statement that Nasrallah was eliminated in a “targeted strike” on the group’s underground headquarters under a residential building in Dahiyeh — a Hezbollah-controlled southern suburb of Beirut.
It said he was killed along with another top Hezbollah leader — Ali Karaki —and other commanders.
“The strike was conducted while Hezbollah’s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel,” it claimed.
The Israeli military “eliminated […] Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a statement on X.
“Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorise the world,” the Israeli military said in a post on X on Saturday.
Late on Friday, a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah was not reachable.
Israel’s five hours of continuous strikes on Beirut early on Saturday followed Friday’s attack, by far the most powerful by Israel on the city during the conflict with Hezbollah that has played out in parallel to the Gaza conflict for nearly a year.
Reuters journalists heard more than 20 airstrikes in Beirut before dawn on Saturday and more after sunrise. Smoke could be seen rising over the city’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh.
Friday’s airstrike on Dahiyeh shook Beirut. A security source in Lebanon said the attack — a quick succession of massively powerful blasts — had left a crater at least 20 meters deep.
Thousands of people have fled the area since Friday’s attack, congregating in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.
“They want to destroy Dahiyeh, they want to destroy all of us,” said Sari, a man in his 30s who gave only his first name, referring to the suburb he had fled after an Israeli evacuation order.
Nearby, the newly displaced in Beirut’s Martyrs Square rolled mats onto the ground to try to sleep.
The Israeli military said a missile fired at central Israel on Saturday had struck an open area. Earlier, the military said about 10 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory and that some had been intercepted.
The Israeli military also said it was striking Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley, a region of eastern Lebanon at the Syrian border that it has pounded over the last week.
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The military said in a statement that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit, Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy Hossein Ahmed Ismail.
Israel’s attacks in Lebanon have widened to new areas this week. On Saturday, an airstrike hit the Lebanese mountain town of Bhamdoun, southeast of Beirut, Lebanese lawmaker for the area Mark Daou told Reuters.
The mayor of Bhamdoun, Walid Khayrallah, told Reuters the strike hit a large empty lot and did not cause any casualties.
