Hezbollah announces that Nasrallah has been killed: what you need to know this Saturday

Around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Hezbollah officially announced that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had been killed. After a particularly trying night, marked by intense shelling of the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Israeli army had claimed, a few hours earlier, that the leader of Hezbollah had been killed in the raid on the party’s HQ. Hezbollah took several hours to confirm this information. On Saturday, Israeli strikes continued in South Lebanon, in the Bekaa and in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The main facts

-Hezbollah officially announced, Saturday around 2:30 p.m., that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had been killed. In a statement read live on the al-Manar party channel, the Shiite group announced that “the master of the resistance” Hassan Nasrallah “moved to the side of his Lord as a great martyr.” “The leadership of Hezbollah is committed to continuing its jihad in the face of the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, in defense of Lebanon,” the statement added. The name of Hachem Safieddinehead of the Executive Council of Hezbollah, is circulating to succeed him.

-Lebanon has decreed a three-day national mourning from Monday to next Wednesdayannounced the office of outgoing Prime Minister Nagib Mikati in a press release. There Syria did the same, while Ayatollah Ali Khameini declared five days of mourning.

-“The elimination of Nasrallah is one of the most important actions in the history of Israel, and we will not stop,” warned Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, quoted by Israeli Army Radio, on X.

-Israeli army says having killed the entire Hezbollah Military Council, with the exception of one commander. Read details here

-Saturday, shortly after 11 a.m., the Israeli army said in a press release having “eliminated Hassan Nasrallah”. In this text, published in particular by the Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli army Avichay Adraee, the latter indicated that Friday evening’s strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut also eliminated “the commander of the Southern Front of Hezbollah” and several others commanders. According to the text, these men died during the first strike on the “underground headquarters” of the Shiite party, “located under a residential building” in the southern suburbs of Beirut. This bombing “was carried out while Hezbollah leaders were” there. The statement claims that “during his 32 years as leader” of the Shiite party, Nasrallah “was responsible for the murder of countless Israeli citizens and soldiers” and for planning attacks against Israel “and around the world.” “.

-The Israeli army also declared in the evening that they had murdered on Saturday Hassan Khalil Yassine“head of the Hezbollah intelligence department”, after having issued new evacuation orders to Lebanese residents in Bekaa, the southern suburbs of Beirut and South Lebanon.

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-“Our actions against Hezbollah prevented a broader attack,” the Israeli army spokesperson also said, adding: “There is still a way to go, Hezbollah still has the capacity to fire on Israel” .

-Saturday at midday, the Israeli army indicated that it had struck, since Friday evening, “ more than 140 targets (…) of Hezbollahincluding (rocket) launchers targeting Israeli civilians, buildings in which weapons were stored (…) and other terrorist infrastructure sites (…) in the Beirut area.”

-In a press release, Hezbollah, for its part, claimed responsibility, shortly after 9:30 a.m., for the launch of a salvo of Fadi-3 missiles at the airport and military base of Ramat David, located east of Haifa.

-The Israeli army has bombarded intensely throughout most of the night from Friday to Saturday, the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, where a raid of incredible violence targeted the party leader on Friday. This strike, which took place at 6:30 p.m., hit, according to Israel, Hezbollah HQ in the suburbs.

-Saturday morning, the exact results of the night remained uncertain, while rescuers were still deployed on the ground to pull residents out of the rubble and transport the injured to hospitals. According to a press release published this morning at 8 a.m. by Civil Defense, the deployment of rescue teams yesterday evening and overnight has so far made it possible to identify 38 victims. During a conference, the outgoing Minister of Health, Firas Abiad, indicated that, since October 8, 2023, the date on which Hezbollah opened a support front in Gaza, in South Lebanon against Israel, Lebanon account 1,640 killed (including 104 children and 194 women), 8,404 injured et number of missing whose bodies were not found under the rubble following Israeli attacks.

–More than 50,000 people have fled to Syria due to Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi said on Saturday.

-According to a source close to Hezbollah, six buildings were completely destroyedraised by enormous explosions which caused thick columns of smoke and dug large craters, sowing panic among the inhabitants.

(Find, here, the first images of the southern suburbs of Beirut after the strikes)

-Saturday morning, thick columns of smoke still rose in the sky, according to AFP journalists on site.

-Of the hundreds of people having fled their homes, often following a message from the Israeli army sent before the strikes, spent the night under the stars. AFP correspondents saw entire families sitting on the ground all night in the center of Beirut or on the seaside ledge.

-Saturday morning, the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that all hospitals in the areas bombed during the night would be evacuated “due to Israeli aggression”. He asked hospitals in other sectors “to stop receiving non-urgent cases until the end of next week, to make room for patients from hospitals in the southern suburbs of Beirut.”

-The Israeli army has claimed, since Friday evening, to strike civilian buildings sheltering, according to it, weapons depots, Hezbollah munitions factories and command centers. The Shiite movement denied Israel’s “allegations” about the presence of weapons depots in residential buildings.

-During the night, the Israeli army indicated that its air force was flying over the surroundings of the capital’s airport, to prevent Iran from landing arms shipments intended for Hezbollah.

Iranian reaction

-Iran affirmed on Saturday that “Hassan Nasrallah’s line would continue” despite the elimination of the Hezbollah leader the day before. “The glorious line of resistance leader Hassan Nasrallah will continue and his sacred goal will be realized with the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem), God willing,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser. Kanani, in a message published on X.
The Shiite movement, part of what Iran calls the “axis of resistance” against Israel, confirmed on Saturday the death of its leader in an Israeli attack. Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif, for his part, expressed his condolences for the death of Nasrallah, calling him a “symbol of the fight against oppression”. A black flag was erected as a sign of mourning at the Imam Reza shrine, the country’s main Shiite place of worship located in the northeastern city of Mashhad, according to local news agency Tasnim. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had already denounced “short-sighted” Israeli policy on Saturday, in a message published on Saturday before the official confirmation of Nasrallah’s death.

-Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the United States “cannot deny its complicity” in the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian state media cited by Reuters announced.

International reactions

-“The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterresis seriously concerned by the dramatic escalation of events in Beirut over the past 24 hours,” its spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Saturday. He “urges the parties to recommit to fully implementing resolution 1701 (2006) of the Security Council and to immediately return to a cessation of hostilities”.

–The US State Department on Saturday ordered some employees of its embassy in Beirut and their eligible family members to leave Lebanon in a context of growing tension in the Middle East.

–“The United States is committed to preventing Iran and Iranian-backed groups from taking advantage of the situation in Lebanon or expanding the conflict”for his part declared the American Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.

–Germany deplored a “very dangerous” situation after the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon and un risk of “destabilization” which is “not at all in the interests of Israel’s security”.

The context

These massive strikes came a few hours after a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the UN General Assembly. During this speech, he affirmed that his country will continue the war against Hezbollah until “all objectives” are achieved. He said not a word about the international proposal led by the United States and France for a 21-day ceasefire.

They also come in the context of a brutal escalation, for more than a week, of Israeli strikes against South Lebanon, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, strongholds of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Strikes which left more than 700 dead and more than a hundred thousand displaced.

A possible ground operation against Hezbollah will be “as short” as possible, an Israeli security official assured Friday morning, while the army chief of staff, General Herzi Halevi, had asked the soldiers to prepare for a possible land incursion.

More than 1,500 people have been killed in Lebanon in almost a year, according to Beirut, more than the 1,200 deaths in 33 days of war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite group in 2006. Unicef ​​was alarmed by the “pace “horrifying” to which children are killed, as well as damage to civilian installations such as pumping stations, which deprive “30,000 people of access to drinking water” in eastern and southern Lebanon.