“Hassan Nasrallah is dead”declared this Saturday, September 28 on X a spokesperson for the Israeli army, lieutenant-colonel Nadav Shoshani. Another army spokesperson, Captain David Avraham, confirmed to AFP that the Hezbollah leader had been “eliminated” in the strike which targeted an area of the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday, presented by Israel as the HQ of the movement.
For his part, a source close to the pro-Iranian party acknowledged that contact had been “lost” with Hassan Nasrallah since Friday evening, without confirming his death. The 64-year-old Hezbollah leader is considered the most powerful man in Lebanon. For years he has lived in hiding and rarely appears in public.
What happened on September 28?
Just before 6:30 p.m., Friday, Huge explosions rang out across Beirut and surrounding areas, causing panic among residents. A “series of Israeli strikes targeted the southern suburbs” of the capital, a stronghold of Hezbollah, reported the official Lebanese press agency.
Columns of smoke rising from different locations were visible in images broadcast live by local television and ambulance sirens sounded across the Lebanese capital. The raid destroyed dozens of buildings, forcing hundreds of people to flee and leaving at least six deadaccording to a report from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
At the scene of the strikes, Haret Hreikseveral huge craters measuring up to five meters in diameter were visible, according to AFP photographers on site. Residents of the densely populated neighborhood told AFP of hearing successive explosions and having their homes “shaken” by them.
A “precise strike” on Hezbollah’s “headquarters”
Right after, Israel says it carried out ‘precise strike’ on Hezbollah ‘headquarters’ in southern Beirut suburbs. IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the headquarters was “located under residential buildings in the heart of Dahiyeh”, the Arabic term for “suburb”.
A source close to Hezbollah said the strikes targeted buildings in a residential area where there are organizations and offices belonging to Hezbollah and its elected officials. In response, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for several rocket attacks against northern Israel this Saturday.
Israel says it has avoided “still a long way to go” against Hezbollah
Israel “still has a way to go” in its fight against Lebanese Hezbollah, an army spokesperson told journalists on Saturday, shortly after the announcement of the death of the leader of the armed Islamist movement.
“There is still a long way to go, Hezbollah still possesses rockets and missiles and has the capacity to fire several simultaneously.”declared the spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani, still estimating the movement’s arsenal at “tens of thousands of rockets”.
European authorities recommend that airlines avoid airspace in the Lebanon and Israel due to an “intensification of airstrikes and a deterioration of the security situation”, they announced on Saturday.
The European Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a bulletin “recommending not to operate within the airspaces of Lebanon and Israel, at all flight levels”, a recommendation “valid until October 31” at this stage, said the EASA.
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