Iranian general killed alongside Hezbollah leader in Israeli strike

A prominent general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard died in the Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, according to Iranian media.
Abbas Nilforushan, the IRGC’s deputy commander for operations in Lebanon, was killed during a meeting with the Hezbollah leader. Nilforushan’s death marks Iran’s most significant loss since April, when his predecessor, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus.
Nilforushan’s death further ratchets up pressure on Iran to respond.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims on Saturday to confront the “wicked regime (of Israel)”, while Ahmad Reza Pour Khaghan, the deputy head of Iran’s judiciary, has reportedly said that Iran had the right to retaliate under international law.
Military officials in Israel announced on Saturday morning that Nasrallah, who headed Hezbollah for more than three decades, died in a bombardment targeting the group’s headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut Friday night. Hezbollah officially confirmed the death hours later.
The Israeli military described the Hezbollah chief as one of Israel’s “greatest enemies of all time”, while Hezbollah vowed to “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.”
The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes, which levelled six apartment buildings. Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front and other commanders were also killed, the Israeli military said.
The recent strikes in Lebanon and the assassination of Nasrallah are a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East.
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Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has declared five days of national mourning across Iran following Nasrallah’s death.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that it conducted a strike in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut. 
After Israel has repeatedly crossed Iran’s “red lines,” hardliners in Tehran are accusing the Mullah regime of being too passive.
Tehran says Israel has crossed multiple red lines, including launching a ground operation in Gaza, a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Islamic Republic’s consulate building in Damascus, and assassinating Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Yet, nearly two months after Haniyeh’s death, Iran continues to threaten retaliation but has done little in response.
With the air strike that killed Nasrallah on Friday, yet another Iranian red line has been crossed.
The Iranian government now finds itself in a difficult position.
Following the air strike in Damascus, Iran responded by attacking Israel with missiles and suicide drones.
However, a faction of more radical officials within the Islamic Republic criticised the government’s response as “asymmetric” and said that it failed to restore Iran’s damaged deterrence.
They say that Iran’s lack of action has emboldened Israel to escalate tensions rapidly, meaning further attacks on Iranian positions are inevitable.
The regional implications of Iran’s silence are affecting its proxy groups too.
Iran’s proxy groups are being targeted by Israel one after another, and they see little practical support coming from Tehran.
The ongoing pattern could significantly undermine what Iranian authorities refer to as their regional power tools.
Russia strongly condemns Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the Lebanese capital Beirut, the foreign ministry said on Saturday, calling it “yet another political assassination”.
“This forceful action is fraught with even greater dramatic consequences for Lebanon and the entire Middle East,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The Israeli side could not fail to recognise this danger, but took the step of killing Lebanese citizens, which would almost inevitably provoke a new outburst of violence. Thus, it bears full responsibility for the subsequent escalation.”
The United States is determined to prevent Iran and Iran-backed groups from exploiting the situation in Lebanon or expanding the conflict, Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, told Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant in calls on Friday.
Mr Austin expressed full US support for Israel’s right to defend itself and “made it clear that the United States remains postured to protect US forces and facilities in the region and committed to the defense of Israel,” Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said in a statement on Saturday.
Reuters is reporting that an explosion has been heard in central Israel after sirens sounded in the region.
Large bangs were heard after a missile was fired from Yemen and intercepted, according to the Israeli military. 
The IDF have confirmed that sirens sounded across the centre of the country after a ballistic missile was fired from Yemen.
The sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas.
Iran’s state TV has been broadcasting live footage of regime supporters gathering across the country.
“Hey leader, we are ready, we are ready,” one group was heard shouting, expressing their readiness for revenge.
Calls for retaliation have also been made by state TV presenters, with one saying: “There is no difference between Baghdad and Tehran, or Beirut and Tehran, the [Israeli] regime will go for all of these locations.”
“Now we should wait for them,” he added. “Netanyahu does not understand dialogue – he only understands one language, and that’s missiles, ballistics, and all sorts of drones.”
Some regime supporters in Iran have also called for the impeachment of Iran’s president Masaoud Pezeshkian over his failure to “secure” Iran’s proxy forces in the Middle East. 
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah “deserved” to die and that the Israeli air raid on Beirut that killed him was justified.
“The elimination of arch-terrorist Nasrallah is one of the most justified counter-terrorism actions Israel has ever taken,” Mr Katz said in a post on X, adding that the Lebanese militant leader “deserved to be taken down, and it’s a good thing he was”.
Iran’s vice president has said that the death of the Hezbollah leader will lead to the destruction of Israel.
“The unjustly shed blood of the oppressed on the path of resistance, particularly that of Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah in Lebanon will lead to the destruction of the Zionist regime,” said Mohammad Reza Aref.
“The world must unite against the Zionist regime,” he added. “We stand resolutely with the resistance,” he added.  
Iran’s Brigadier General Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, is the most senior Iranian commander to have been killed in recent months.
He was one of the prominent commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, and led several operations.
Nilforushan served as the deputy commander of IRGC ground force operations from 2005 to 2007.
Between 2010 and 2014, he held the position of commander at the IRGC command and headquarters, and since 2019 has served as the IRGC’s deputy of operations. Nilforushan also headed the IRGC command and headquarters college, and was deputy commander at Imam Hossein Camp.
In April, he was appointed as the IRGC’s deputy director of operations in the Middle East, succeeding Mohammad Reza Zahedi by order of Major General Hossein Salami, the IRGC commander-in-chief.
Zahedi was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus. In response to Zahedi’s death, Iran launched around 300 suicide drones and missiles at Israel.
Nilforushan played a significant role in managing and supporting Iran’s regional allies, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas. 
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Israel was committing a “genocide” in Lebanon after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was confirmed among hundreds killed in Israeli strikes this week.
“Lebanon and the Lebanese people are the latest target of a policy of genocide, occupation and invasion carried out by Israel since October 7,” Mr Erdogan wrote on X.
An Iranian official has said on state television that Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah was killed due to a security breach.
Mohammad-Javad Larijani, the international deputy for the chief justice and secretary of the high council for human rights in Iran, said on state TV: “The pager attacks and recent strikes were a result of infiltration, something the Supreme Leader had already warned about.”
He added: “This gap will soon be filled, and when it is, Hezbollah will emerge even stronger.”
In his last broadcast speech, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, vowed a “reckoning will come” with Israel over its attacks on his fighters.
“It’s nature, its size, how and where? That is certainly what we will keep to ourselves,” he said.
In the end, the reckoning came for him in the form of a huge Israeli bombardment targeting Hezbollah’s headquarters on Friday night.
The arch-foe of Israel was eliminated after more than 30 years of leading Hezbollah in its wars against the Jewish state.
Among supporters, Nasrallah was lauded for standing up to Israel and defying the United States. To enemies, he was head of a terrorist organisation and a proxy for Iran’s Shi’ite Islamist theocracy in its tussle for influence in the Middle East.
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Iran’s foreign ministry has said the path of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah will continue despite his killing in an Israeli air strike in Beirut.
“The glorious path of the leader of the resistance, Hassan Nasrallah, will continue and his sacred goal will be realised in the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem), God willing,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a post on social media X.
The Houthi movement in Yemen has mourned the death of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, its ally in an Iran-backed alliance opposing Israel.
“The resistance will not be broken, and the Jihadist spirit of the Mujahideen brothers in Lebanon and on all fronts of support will grow stronger and bigger,” the group said in a statement.
Iran has cancelled flights to Beirut.
A spokesman for the Islamic Republic’s IranAire announced that all flights to Beirut’s Rafic Hariri Airport have been “suspended until further notice”. 
A senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed alongside Hasan Nasrallah, Iranian media has reported.
“Guards Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was martyred in Israel’s attack on Beirut along with Martyr Seyed Hassan Nasrallah,” IRNA news agency reported.
Nilforoushan, the IRGC’s deputy commander for operations in Lebanon, was killed during a meeting with the Hezbollah leader.
Nilforoushan’s death marks Iran’s most significant loss since April, when his predecessor, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus.
In response to Zahedi’s death, Iran launched around 300 suicide drones and missiles at Israel.
Iraq’s prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has condemned the Israeli killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as a “crime”.
The Friday attack on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold that killed the Iran-backed group’s leader was a “shameful attack” and “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines”, Sudani said in a statement, calling Nasrallah “a martyr on the path of the righteous”.
The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said more than 50,000 Lebanese and Syrian people living in Lebanon have now crossed into Syria fleeing Israeli airstrikes. 
“Well over 200,000 are displaced inside Lebanon,” he added in a post on X. “Relief operations are underway, including by UNHCR, to help all those in need, in coordination with both governments.”
More than 50,000 Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon have now crossed into Syria fleeing Israeli airstrikes. Well over 200,000 are displaced inside Lebanon.Relief operations are underway, including by UNHCR, to help all those in need, in coordination with both governments. pic.twitter.com/Qcvdw79z8A
Israel’s war is not with the Lebanese people, defence minister Yoav Gallant said on Saturday, after confirmation Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
“He (Nasrallah) was the murderer of thousands of Israelis and foreign citizens. He was an immediate threat to the lives of thousands of Israelis and other citizens,” Mr Gallant said in a statement. “To the people of Lebanon, I say: Our war is not with you. It’s time for change.”
Israel has changed the guidelines for civilians living in central Israel with immediate effect.
Outdoor gatherings and services can only be held up to 10 people, beaches will be closed to the public, and educational activities are prohibited, among other amendments.
A report by the New York Times has said that Israeli leaders had been aware of Hassan Nasrallah’s whereabouts for months and decided to strike him last week because they believed he would soon disappear to a different location.
Two senior Israeli defence officials told the newspaper that more than 80 bombs were dropped over a period of several minutes to kill him. 
The officials said that the operation had been planned earlier in the week, as Israeli political leaders spoke with their American counterparts about the possibility of a cease-fire in Lebanon, and before Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, left Israel to give a speech at the United Nations
Hamas has said Nasrallah’s death would only fuel the fight against Israel.
“Crimes and assassination by the occupation will only increase the determination and the insistence of the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon to go forward with all their might, bravery and pride on the footsteps of the martyrs…and pursue the path of resistance until victory and the dismissal of the occupation,” Hamas said in a statement.
“We reaffirm our absolute solidarity and standing with the brothers in Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, who are taking part in the battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood to defend Al-Aqsa mosque, alongside our people and our resistance,” Hamas added.
Islamic Jihad, another Iranian-backed Palestinian group, said in a statement: “Sooner or later, the resistance forces in Lebanon, Palestine, and the region will make the enemy pay the price of its crimes, and taste defeat for what its sinful hands have done.”
The mood has dramatically soured in Beirut. While women are weeping, Shia men in different parts of Beirut are expressing their emotion by firing into the air.
Israelis rejoiced Saturday at the news that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had been killed.
“Absolutely fantastic news, it should have been done a long time ago,” said David Shalev, a resident of Israel’s commercial hub told AFP.
Although he cast doubt on whether Nasrallah’s killing would end the fighting in the north, he said it sent a clear message to Israel’s foes in the region: “Don’t screw with us.”
In the coastal city of Rishon LeZion in central Israel, Shuli Diaz called Friday’s strike on Nasrallah “an amazing move”.
She said she hoped the Hezbollah leader’s death would bring peace after more than a year of war triggered by the October 7 attack.
“I think that the elimination of Nasrallah will bring an end to the war,” Diaz said. “I believe that this will bring some sort of political resolution. I at least hope so.”
“We are celebrating the death of the number one terrorist in the world,” said Rami Steiner, another resident of Rishon LeZion. “This is an opportunity for a new era, a better world without terrorists.”
Some extraordinary scenes here in Beirut as Hezbollah confirms the death of Hassan Nasrallah. One Shia woman has burst into tears, while another has sank to her knees, repeating: “Oh God! Oh God”.
Many people, including a Christian woman, are trying to console them.
Hassan Nasrallah was a deeply polarising figure in Lebanese society and across the Middle East.
For the marginalised Shia minority in Lebanon he was a resistance hero who, as far as they are concerned, liberated their heartlands from Israeli military occupation in 2000. They also regarded him as their saviour and champion – the man who fought for Shias to have a political voice in Lebanon and ensured they had access to services and welfare.
Many Shias I spoke to before the news was confirmed had flatly refused to believe the Israeli claims that Nasrallah had died. It was a trick, they insisted, to get him to surface on TV with the hope of striking him again. To say that Lebanon’s Shia community is now in shock would be an understatement.
But for Lebanon’s other communities – Christians, Sunni Muslims and Druze – the reaction is likely to be more ambivalent.
Some still view Nasrallah favourably for standing up to Israel, but many blame him and his movement for contributing to Lebanon’s political paralysis and economic crisis, as well as for dragging them into a conflict with Israel that few of them would have wanted. 
Hamas said in a statement it mourned the death of Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah has confirmed that its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed and vowed to continue the battle against Israel.
“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
The Israeli military announced the assassination earlier on Saturday. “Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said.
The IDF said that it carried out a precise air strike while Hezbollah leaders met at its headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut, and vowed to “reach” anyone else who threatens Israel.
Nasrallah led the militant group for more than three decades. His death could dramatically reshape conflicts across the Middle East.
France’s foreign ministry said that according to its information Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was indeed dead, after Israel said it had killed him a day earlier.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah has yet to issue any statement on the status of Nasrallah, its leader for 32 years.
“According to the information we have, Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah, would indeed have died,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
A senior Israeli official has told The Telegraph that Israel planned the assassination of Nasrallah “for years”.
“The last thing Nasrallah did was watch the Israeli prime minister on TV in the UN. He was sure he knew the Israelis, but didn’t understand what is coming,” the source said.
“The Iranians used Lebanon and abandoned it at the first opportunity. The whole world sees that the Iranians are a paper tiger. When the Lebanese soldiers started paying the price for Iran, Khamenei simply abandoned them. The Iranians used Lebanon and now have left it behind. Khamenei exploited Lebanon and discarded it,” the official added.
A new Israeli strike hit a building in Hezbollah’s south Beirut bastion Saturday, a Lebanese security official told AFP, after Israel earlier said it killed group leader Hassan Nasrallah during intense bombardment.
“A new Israeli strike targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, adding it hit “a building”.
Iran’s supreme leader has insisted that Israel cannot destroy Hezbollah, in his first remarks after the IDF said it had killed leader Hassan Nasrallah.
In a statement, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israeli “criminals should know that they are too small to cause significant damage to the strong construction of Hezbollah in Lebanon”.
He added that the “fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront” and called on Muslims “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime (of Israel)”.
He also denounced the killing of “defenceless” civilians in Lebanon, saying it showed “the short-sightedness and foolish policies of the leaders” of Israel.
Khamenei has reportedly been transferred to a secure location inside the country with heightened security measures in place after Israel vowed to “reach” anyone who threatens Israel.
Israel hopes Hassan Nasrallah’s death could significantly degrade the group and prevent the need for a ground invasion to stop Hezbollah’s rocket, missile and drone attacks across the border, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
“His powerful leadership is different,” a senior Israeli official told the newspaper. “Some people are irreplaceable.” 
“Our preference is to not have a ground invasion,” the senior Israeli official added. “This could be a pivot.”  
Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs are ongoing, witnesses told Reuters on Saturday, saying smoke was visible rising from the affected area.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had struck more than 140 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the previous night.
“Since last night, the IDF (military) struck over 140 Hezbollah terror targets, including launchers aimed at Israeli civilians, buildings in which weapons were stored, strategic weaponry, weapons production facilities, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites, some embedded underneath residential buildings in the area of Beirut,” the military said in a statement.
Lebanon’s transport ministry told an Iranian aircraft not to enter its airspace after Israel warned air traffic control at Beirut airport that it would use “force” if the plane landed, a source at the ministry told Reuters.
The source said it was not clear what was on the plane. 
“The priority is people’s lives,” the source added.
Israel’s military said Saturday that “most” senior leaders of Hezbollah had been killed, after it announced the death of Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the group, which has not provided confirmation.
“Most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told an online press briefing.
The IDF has posted an image on social media of Hezbollah’s military chain of command, with “eliminated” written over the photographs of those it says has been killed.
We searched up “dismantled” on the internet, this is the picture that came up: pic.twitter.com/C5p3jmhwIZ
Israel is on high alert for a broader conflict after the elimination of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, but hopes his death will cause the Iran-backed group to change course, a military spokesperson said on Saturday.
“We hope this will change Hezbollah’s actions,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in a media briefing after the military confirmed it had killed Nasrallah.
But he said there was still a ways to go in degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities.
“We’ve seen Hezbollah carry out attacks against us for a year. It’s safe to assume that they are going to continue carrying out their attacks against us or try to,” he said.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli sites including Rosh Pina in the north with missiles in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese cities, villages and civilians.
The attack that the IDF said killed Hassan Nasrallah was undertaken by F-15i jets from squadron 69, the “Ream” squadron.
The planes dropped “about 85 bunker-penetrating bombs weighing a ton of explosives each”, says Israel’s Channel 12 news.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reportedly been transferred to a secure location inside the country with heightened security measures in place.
It comes after Israel announced it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday and vowed to “reach” anyone who threatens Israel.
“This is not the end of our toolbox. The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel – we will know how to reach them,” Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said in a statement.
Iran has been Hezbollah’s ally since the Lebanese armed group’s establishment in 1982. Khamenei, a former president of Iran, is the country’s head of state, responsible for the Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The Middle East is on tenterhooks over whether the conflict will now spill over into all out war.
Not surprisingly, Israel’s military hawks are cockahoop this morning.
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah and a lethal terrorist foe of more than 40 years, is no more, according to the IDF.
But it’s not just revenge that Israel’s defence establishment is celebrating, but confirmation that its hawkish “take-the-fight-to them” strategy is working.
Israel’s strike on Hezbollah’s nerve centre in Dahiyeh may have “fundamentally altered Iran’s strategic ambitions” in the region, says former Israeli Intelligence official Avi Melamed.
“This incident offers the Lebanese – previously held hostage by Hezbollah – the chance to liberate themselves from Iranian influence, while also likely compelling Iran to reevaluate its plans for regional control”, he added.
Despite heavy collateral damage and damage to Israel’s reputation, Hamas has all but been destroyed as a military force in Gaza. And now there can be little doubt that Hezbollah has been seriously degraded.
So is the hawk’s approach really working in the face of continued US and other dovish opposition? Is there blowback yet to come? Or does history really favour the brave?
Time will tell but it’s been a long time since military hawks were this bullish – about 20 years in fact.
“Seeing the faces of liberated Iraqis, you have to say this is a very good day,” Mr Rumsfeld said at a Washington press conference in 2003.
“We are seeing history unfold. Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin and Ceaucescu in the pantheon of failed, brutal dictators.”
At least 41,586 Palestinians have been killed and 96,210 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since Oct 7, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said.
The Israeli army’s chief of staff said on Saturday it had not emptied its “toolbox” with the targeted killing of Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
“This is not the end of our toolbox. The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel – we will know how to reach them,” Herzi Halevi, the chief of the general staff, said in a statement.
An Israeli military statement said its strikes have also killed Ali Karake, who they identified as commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and an unspecified number of other Hezbollah commanders.
“During Hassan Nasrallah’s 32-year reign as the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, he was responsible for the murder of many Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist activities,” the statement said.
“He was responsible for directing and executing terrorist attacks around the world in which civilians of various nationalities were murdered. Nasrallah was the central decision-maker and the strategic leader of the organisation.”
Ettie Higgins, Unicef’s deputy representative in Lebanon, said “thousands and thousands” of people had fled southern Beirut, while hospitals were “overwhelmed” and water pumping stations had been destroyed.
She told the BBC’s Today programme: “Even the most basic essential services of healthcare and water are now being rapidly, rapidly depleted.
“There was already a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon given that it’s been hosting over 1 million refugees from Syria for over a decade, so it’s rapidly escalating into a catastrophe.”
She added that 50 children had already been killed, and said she expected that figure to rise as the air strikes continued.
Britons have been urged to leave Lebanon amid warnings the country faces a humanitarian “catastrophe” following the latest round of Israeli air strikes.
On Friday, the Foreign Office warned that British nationals should “leave now” as series of massive explosions levelled multiple apartment buildings in Beirut.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said it was “working to increase capacity” and secure seats for British nationals on flights out of the country.
Israel’s army chief vowed on Saturday to “reach” anyone who threatens Israeli citizens, after the military said Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had been killed.
“This is not the end of our toolbox. The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel – we will know how to reach them,” Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said in a statement.
A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah said that contact had been lost since Friday evening with chief Hassan Nasrallah.
“Contact with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been lost since Friday evening,” the source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. He did not confirm whether Nasrallah had been killed.
In a post on X, the Israeli Defense Forces said Hassan Nasrallah “will no longer be able to terrorize the world”.
Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.
Hailed as a national hero for his role in ending the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah was once likened in the country to revolutionary leaders like Che Guevara.
Born in a Beirut suburb in 1960, Nasrallah was 15 when civil war broke out in Lebanon, forcing the family, including his nine siblings, to flee the capital for their ancestral home in Bazouriye, a southern village.
By 1982, with the civil war underway, he organised for five years an armed resistance to the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, before travelling to Iran for further study.
He would only return once his mentor Abbas al-Musawi had come to power in Hezbollah, replacing him as leader when he was killed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in 1992.
Under Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah built up support among the long under-represented Shia Muslims in Lebanon, offering welfare services like interest-free loans and food deliveries during Ramadan.
Meanwhile, its attacks on the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon forced the Israeli army out of the country in 2000, following 15 years of occupation.
When the Israelis withdrew, Nasrallah’s popularity in the Arab world shot through the roof. In 2006, Hizbollah would clash again with Israel after sending gunmen across the border in a lethal raid. That war ended with more than 1,000 Lebanese and 165 Israelis dead, and a UN-brokered agreement for Israel to lift its naval blockade of Lebanon.
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The Israeli military said they have killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, in a strike in Beirut on Friday.
“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”.
The military said that they carried out a precise airstrike while Hezbollah leadership was meeting at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.
Nasrallah has led Hezbollah for more than three decades. The Iran-backed Hezbollah has yet to issue any statement on the status of Nasrallah, who has led the group for 32 years.
The military said the strikes also killed Ali Karake, who the statement identified as commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and an unspecified number of other Hezbollah commanders.
News agencies are reporting that hundreds of people slept in the streets of the Lebanese capital overnight as they sought to escape the parts of the city that were being targeted in the Israeli strikes.
Agence France-Presse reports that families slept in Martyr’s Square in the centre of the city or on the waterfront, with many sleeping in their cars.
Israel had warned residents to leave parts of the densely populated Dahiyeh district ahead of its bombing raid on Saturday morning.
The Israeli army has said it is calling up three reserve battalions to its central command, which operates in the West Bank area.
The IDF said that the call up was for the purpose of “operational missions and bolstering defenses.”
Reuters reports that Israeli strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, which are Hezbollah’s stronghold, over a five hour period overnight.
Witnesses reported more than 20 air strikes before dawn. At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said
The IDF also confirmed that it had struck targets in the Bekaa Valley region and the south of the country.
According to the Israeli military, the sites include ammunition storage facilities and rocket launching sites.
The IDF says that five rockets were fired from Lebanon this morning at the Jezreel Valley, an area to the east of Haifa in the north of the country.
Sirens were set off in towns east of the port city.
The IDF said it intercepted some of the rockets. No injuries have been reported.
Israel’s army has announced that it killed Ahmad Muhammad Fahd, who they say was the head of Hamas operations in southern Syria.
“Overnight (Friday), the IAF struck and eliminated Ahmad Muhammad Fahd, head of the Hamas terrorist network in southern Syria,” the IDF said in a statement.
The IDF said that Fahd was killed in a strike by Israel’s air force while planning to carry out an imminent terror attack.
He was responsible for carrying out attacks on Israeli soldiers and “firing projectiles toward the Golan Heights area,” the statement continued.