The Israeli military claims that Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah, was killed in Friday’s airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. There has been no confirmation from Hezbollah.
The strikes flattened buildings in a densely populated area, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel launched further strikes on southern Beirut, targeting what it says are stores of Hezbollah weapons.
Israel didn’t notify the US about the strikes until the attack was underway, according to the US defense secretary. Sources say the lack of notice added to US frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has sent mixed messages on a US-led ceasefire proposal and made a combative speech earlier at the UN General Assembly.
Lebanon has recorded more than 100,000 people displaced by the recent conflict, but authorities said the true number is likely much higher. Up to half a million people are likely internally displaced, Lebanon’s health minister told CNN.
IDF says it doesn’t know how many civilians were killed in strike targeting Nasrallah
The Israeli military does not yet know how many civilians were killed in its strike on southern Beirut that it says killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, an Israeli military official said Saturday.
“I still don’t know the numbers,” the official said. They also declined to comment on the type of bombs used in the attack.
When asked what kind of collateral damage assessment the Israel Defense Forces carried out ahead of the strike, the official said: “There’s a discussion with an intelligence officer, a surveillance officer (and) a legal officer.”
“This is not the end of our toolbox,” Israel’s army chief warns
Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi has warned that “this is not the end of our toolbox” following the military’s claim that it killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on Friday.
“This is not the end of our toolbox. It should be very clear: there are further tools going forward. And the message is clear: anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel, we will know how to reach them, in the north, in the south, and also farther away,” Halevi said in a video released Saturday.
He added that Friday’s strike had been carefully prepared over a long period of time.
“Eventually, after a long period of preparation, of many capabilities for Lebanon, we started implementing them,” he said, adding that the strike “was carried out at the right time, in a very sharp manner, and we are now moving to preparing the next things.”
He ended his video statement by saying that Israel’s military is prepared “along all our fronts.”
The Israeli military claimed Saturday that Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, was killed in Friday’s airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. Hezbollah has not commented.
Nasrallah was killed alongside Hezbollah commanders, Israeli military says
The Israeli military claims that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed alongside Hezbollah commanders in Friday’s airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon.
“Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and one of its founders, was eliminated by the IDF, together with Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Saturday morning.
Prior to last week, it was extraordinarily rare for Israel to strike the Lebanese capital. The IDF continued to strike Beirut overnight, targeting what it said were Hezbollah missile storage facilities. CNN teams witnessed massive explosions reverberating through the capital.
Israeli Air Force jets “conducted a targeted strike on the central headquarters of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which was located underground embedded under a residential building in the area of Dahiyeh in Beirut,” the IDF said. “The strike was conducted while Hezbollah’s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel.”
Hezbollah began firing on northern Israel the day after Hamas’ October 7 attack on the country. Around 60,000 Israelis have been forced from their homes, whom the Israeli government has committed to returning.
Last week, Israel massively ramped up its military campaign against Hezbollah, killing hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, according to the Lebanese government.
Who was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah?
Hassan Nasrallah, who Israel has claimed was killed in a strike on southern Beirut, turned Hezbollah into one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East.
One of the founding members of the group formed four decades ago with the aid of Iran, Nasrallah ascended to the top of Hezbollah in 1992. He replaced his predecessor and mentor, Abbas Musawi, as secretary-general of Hezbollah, after he was killed by an Israeli helicopter strike.
Born to a grocer and his wife in Beirut in August 1960, Nasrallah spent his early adolescence under the shadow of Lebanon’s civil war.
When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, Nasrallah rallied a group of fighters to resist the occupation – which would evolve into Hezbollah.
In its statement announcing his death, the Israeli military said Nasrallah was responsible for the murder of many Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist activities. It called him “the central decision-maker and the strategic leader of the organization.”
Credit: CNN
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