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Israel has killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a major attack on Beirut, the latest in a series of devastating blows against the Lebanese militant group.
The attack on a densely populated residential area in southern Beirut was part of heavy shelling by Israeli forces over the past 24 hours, ending a dramatic escalation of Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah.
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death in a statement on Saturday, saying he had joined the group’s long list of “martyrs.” The group said its leadership will continue to fight against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine and in defense of Lebanon and its loyal and honorable people.”
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Helj Halevi said on Saturday that the attack does not mean the end of Israel’s operations. “This is not the end of our toolbox,” he said. “The message is simple: Whoever threatens the Israeli people, we know how to contact them.”
Israel claimed that the attack also killed Hezbollah’s Southern Front commander Ali Karaki and other senior commanders. This was the latest in a series of attacks by Israel against Hezbollah’s chain of command, backed by Iran.
Iranian state media said Abbas Nilforoushan, a senior commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards who was meeting with Prime Minister Nasrallah, was also killed.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Friday that at least six people were killed and 91 injured in the attack. The figure was expected to rise as rescue workers continued to search for survivors.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said that the fate of the Middle East “will be decided by resistance forces, the foremost of which is Hezbollah.”
He added that the group’s “strong structure cannot be seriously undermined” by “Zionist criminals” who have shown “short-sighted and foolish policies”.
He appealed to all Muslims to support Hezbollah in its fight against the “occupying and evil regime.”
Nasrallah’s death capped a harrowing two-week period in which Hezbollah suffered one of the heaviest blows in its 40-year existence.
Nasrallah, a cleric from a Shiite family from Beirut, took control of Hezbollah in 1992 and became an increasingly important figure in Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance. His role in the militant alliance became even more prominent after the U.S. assassination of Iran’s most powerful commander, Qasem Soleimani, in 2020.
Nasrallah oversaw Hezbollah’s growth to become the country’s supreme political force and a de facto state within a state.
His death raises questions about the future of Hezbollah, the Islamist revolutionary organization founded by Iran during Lebanon’s civil war in the 1980s, and threatens to plunge Lebanon into chaos.
The attack on Beirut came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday at the United Nations in New York that Israel “must defeat” Hezbollah, despite international pressure for a ceasefire.
Beirut residents said Israeli bombing on Friday night and early Saturday morning was the heaviest in the city since Israel and Hezbollah waged a 34-day war in 2006.
Explosions lit up the sky all night, scattering huge clouds of dust into the air. Hundreds of people were evacuated from the southern part of the city, where Hezbollah is based, and took shelter on beaches and public squares.
Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said Israel hopes Nasrallah’s killing will “change Hezbollah’s behavior” and allow the 60,000 Israelis displaced by the fighting to return to their homes in the north.
“Hezbollah started this war on October 8 and has been firing at us ever since,” he said in a briefing with reporters. “We are trying to change the reality so that civilians can (return) safely.”
Over the past two weeks, Israel has escalated its attacks on militants, killing senior commanders one after another. This week, it began heavy shelling across Lebanon, killing more than 600 people and displacing more than 90,000.
On Wednesday, Israel called up two reserve brigades for an “operational mission” in the country’s north, and Mr. Halevi instructed the military to prepare for a possible ground attack in Lebanon.
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Israeli forces on Saturday carried out “massive” bombing raids in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, as well as attacking more targets in Beirut and shelling them, after warning civilians in some populated areas to evacuate. announced that it is continuing.
Shoshani said Israel assessed that Hezbollah had suffered severe losses, but did not go into details, citing operational considerations.
He added that Israel is ready for any response. “Are we ready for a broader escalation? Yes,” he said, adding that there was no need to change guidelines already in place for Israeli civilians. “Our troops are on high alert. . . We understand that these are tense days.”
Additional reporting from Tehran by Najmeh Bozorgmehr
