The Lebanese Hezbollah group confirmed on Saturday that its leader and one of its founders, Hassan Nasrallahwas killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous day.
A statement said Nasrallah “has joined his fellow martyrs.” Hezbollah pledged to “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.”
Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, is by far the most powerful target Israel has killed in recent weeks. intensified fighting with Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it was done a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leaders met at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.
Lebanon’s health ministry said six people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes, which razed six apartment buildings. Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and other commanders were also killed, the Israeli army said.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said the airstrike was based on years of tracking Nasrallah, along with “real-time intelligence” that made the attack viable. He declined to say what munitions were used in the attack or to provide an estimate of civilian deaths, saying only that Israel takes measures to avoid civilians where possible and pre-approves attacks with intelligence and legal experts.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has expressed its condolences to its ally Hezbollah in a statement. Nasrallah often described launching rockets against northern Israel as a “support front” for Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza.
“History has proven that the resistance… when its leaders die as martyrs, will be succeeded on the same path by a generation of leaders who are braver, stronger and more determined to continue the confrontation,” the Hamas statement said.
It added that “assassinations will only increase the resolve and determination of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine.”
Immediately after Hezbollah’s official confirmation, people in Beirut and other parts of the country began shooting in the air to mourn Nasrallah’s death. Some protested that he was killed for his support of the war in Gaza.
“I wish they were our children, and not you, Sayyid!” said a woman, using an honorific for Nasrallah, as she held her baby in the western town of Baabda.
Israel vows to continue attacks on Hezbollah
Israel’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said on Saturday that eliminating Nasrallah was “not the end of our toolbox,” indicating more attacks were planned.
Israel has vowed to increase pressure on Hezbollah until it ends attacks that have driven tens of thousands of Israelis from communities near the Lebanese border. Recent fighting has also displaced more than 200,000 Lebanese over the past week, according to the United Nations.
The army said on Saturday it was mobilizing additional reserve soldiers Tensions with Lebanon are escalatingwith three battalions of reserve soldiers activated to serve across the country. It sent two brigades to northern Israel earlier this week to train for a possible ground invasion.
Shoshani, the army spokesman, said Israel has inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah’s capabilities over the past week by focusing on a combination of immediate threats and strategic weapons, such as larger, guided missiles. But he said much of Hezbollah’s arsenal remains intact and that Israel will continue to target the group. The Israeli military has updated guidelines for Israeli citizens and canceled gatherings of more than 1,000 people due to the ongoing threat.
About 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes along the Lebanese border for almost a year. The Israeli government said this earlier this month stopping Hezbollah’s attacks in the north of the country Allowing residents to return to their homes is an official war goal.
Iran and Iraq call for support for Hezbollah
Iranian state television read live Hezbollah’s announcement confirming Nasrallah’s death, but there was no other immediate comment.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a Saturday message that “the resistance movement, led by Hezbollah, will decide the fate of the region,” in a statement read on state television.
Iran is the main supporter of Lebanese Hezbollah and other militant groups in the region.
Also on Saturday, Iran’s influential parliamentary committee on national security demanded a “strong” response to Israel after a meeting of the committee. State television also said people in major cities and towns across the country were organizing anti-Israel demonstrations in support of Hezbollah.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has declared a three-day period of mourning in his country. Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of Iranian-backed political factions, many of which have armed wings linked to Hezbollah.
A year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in support of Gaza on October 8, a day after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping another 250.
Since then, the two sides have been engaged in cross-border attacks that have gradually escalated and displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border.
Hostilities escalated dramatically last week when thousands of explosives were fired hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah was detonated, killing dozens of people and leaving thousands, including many civilians, with serious injuries to the eyes, face and limbs.
Israel is widely believed to be behind the attack. Israel has also killed several top Hezbollah commanders in Beirut, especially in the past two weeks, in addition to the attack that killed Nasrallah.
An opportunity for Israel and Lebanon
Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based think tank Institute for National Security Studies and a former intelligence analyst for the Israeli military and the prime minister’s office, noted that Nasrallah was at times a “voice of reason” interested in involving Israel in a war. of exhaustion and keeping the militant group from using the full force of their formidable arsenal against Israel.
Nasrallah’s death could prompt some less prominent members of Hezbollah to unleash much more powerful weapons than those used in the nearly year-long hostilities between Hezbollah and Lebanon, she said.
The biggest question mark right now, however, is how Iran will respond, Mizrahi said.
She added that Nasrallah’s death could provide an opportunity, with the organization significantly weakened, for Lebanon to weaken Hezbollah’s far-reaching influence, especially in the south, which threatens to drag Lebanon into a full-scale war with Israel.
Ongoing strikes on both sides of the border
On Saturday morning, the Israeli military carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, including an anti-ship missile storage facility in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.
Israel said the missiles were stored underground beneath civilian apartment buildings. Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles across northern and central Israel and deep into the Israeli-occupied West Bank, damaging some buildings in the northern city of Safed.
Smoke rose and streets were empty in Beirut’s southern suburbs after heavy Israeli airstrikes hit the area overnight.
Shelters for displaced people in the city center were overcrowded. Many families slept in public squares and beaches or in their cars. On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, carrying babies and whatever belongings they could carry.
At least 720 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon over the past week, according to the Health Ministry.
