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Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah killed in Lebanon's Beirut airstrike, confirms Israeli military
The Israel military said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Beirut strike in Lebanon.
The Israeli military announced on Saturday that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a strike on Beirut. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, has yet to comment on its leader’s whereabouts or health since the bombing.
"Hassan Nasrallah is dead," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced on X. Military spokesman Captain David Avraham also confirmed to AFP that the Hezbollah chief had been "eliminated" following strikes Friday on the Lebanese capital.
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Israel Defense Forces or IDF also took to X and posted, “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.”
An unnamed source close to Lebanon's Hezbollah group told news agency AFP that contact had been lost since last evening with chief Hassan Nasrallah, after Israel said it had “eliminated” him in a strike on the group's southern Beirut bastion.
“Contact with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been lost since Friday evening,” AFP quoted the source as saying . He, however, did not confirm whether Nasrallah had been killed.
Attacks on Hezbollah targets by fighter jets on Friday continued into the early hours Saturday after the Israeli Army said it told residents to evacuate three buildings it was targeting.
Hours before the strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations, vowing that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue — further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire. Netanyahu abruptly cut his United States visit short and returned to Israel.
More than 720 people have been killed in Lebanon since the conflict escalated Monday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The United Nations said the number of those displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon has more than doubled, with more than 211,000 people now displaced.
At least 20 primary health care centers have shut down in hard-hit areas of Lebanon, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.
Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.
