Israeli army announces killing of Hezbollah leader

Israel announced on Saturday that it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, at a time when a source close to the Lebanese Shiite movement claimed that contact had been lost with its leader.

If confirmed, the death of Hassan Nasrallah, considered the most powerful man in Lebanon, would shake his party, destabilize the country and be seen as a major victory for Israel against Iran and its allies in the region.

Closest ally of Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy, Hezbollah has still not made an official announcement on the fate of its leader more than 15 hours after a devastating Israeli raid on its stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut which targeted “Hezbollah’s central headquarters” according to Israel.

But a source close to the pro-Iranian movement affirmed that “contact has been lost” since Friday evening with Hassan Nasrallah, at the head of the movement since 1992.

“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” an army spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said on the social network AFP that the leader of Hezbollah had been “eliminated”.

Hassan Nasrallah, 64, is a man of religion who is the subject of a veritable cult of personality in Lebanon. For years he has lived in hiding and has rarely appeared in public.

According to several Israeli television stations, Hassan Nasrallah was targeted by the unprecedentedly violent strike that occurred Friday at 3:30 p.m. GMT in a densely populated neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

After Israel announced his death, Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi said: “We have not exhausted all the means at our disposal. The message is simple: whoever threatens the citizens of Israel, we will know how to get to them.”

Friday’s Israeli raid destroyed dozens of buildings, forced hundreds of people to flee and left at least six dead, according to a report from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Despite the blows dealt by Israel, which constantly bombs Hezbollah strongholds in the south and east of Lebanon as well as in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese movement announced on Saturday that it had fired rockets against a kibbutz and military targets in northern Israel.

After an evacuation warning issued Friday evening by the Israeli army, hundreds of residents of the southern suburbs fled and families slept in the streets.

“It was a very hard night, the missiles were falling above our house, I will never forget the cries of the children,” says Hawraa el-Husseini who fled the southern suburbs with his family.

The Israeli army said it had targeted civilian buildings in this area housing, according to it, Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers. Hezbollah denied the presence of weapons depots in residential buildings.

The Israeli army launched a violent and deadly bombing campaign against Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon on Monday, after a year of cross-border firefights with the Lebanese outfit.

Hezbollah opened a front against Israel at the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by an attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel led by Palestinian Hamas, its ally. And he vowed to continue his attacks “until the end of Israeli aggression in Gaza.”

Israel claims to be acting to restore security in the north of the country, a target of Hezbollah fire, and thus allow the return of tens of thousands of residents forced to flee.

On Saturday, the Israeli army said it had carried out “major strikes” on “dozens of Hezbollah targets” in southern and eastern Lebanon.

She earlier claimed to have killed the commander of a missile unit of the movement and his deputy in a strike in southern Lebanon.

Israel also announced that its air force had flown over the vicinity of Beirut airport during the night, saying it wanted to prevent Iran from landing arms shipments intended for Hezbollah there.

Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon will continue “until all our objectives are achieved,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN, dashing hopes of a truce proposed by Paris and Washington.

Since Monday, Israeli bombings have killed more than 700 people, mostly civilians, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. In one year, the number of people killed rose to more than 1,500, a death toll higher than that of the 33 days of war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.