Israeli military says Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in strikes on Beirut

BEIRUT

The Israeli military announced on Saturday that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a strike on Beirut.

"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.

A source close to Lebanon's Hezbollah group said Saturday contact had been lost since last evening with Nasrallah.

"Contact with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been lost since Friday evening," said the source, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. He did not confirm whether Nasrallah had been killed.

Israeli jets bombarded the southern suburbs of Beirut Saturday.

Thousands of residents in Beirut's densely-packed southern suburbs camped out overnight in streets, public squares and makeshift shelters after Israel ordered them out before its jets attacked the Hezbollah stronghold.

Israel said it was attacking the Iran-backed group's headquarters and weapons facilities in the Lebanese capital, and Israeli and U.S. media reported Nasrallah was the target of strikes Friday night, although a source close to Hezbollah said he was "fine".

The blasts that rocked southern Beirut Friday were the fiercest to hit the group's stronghold since Israel and Hezbollah last went to war in 2006.

After heavy strikes sounded across the Mediterranean city Friday, Israel issued fresh warnings for people to leave part of the densely populated Dahiyeh suburbs before dawn.

Hundreds of families spent the night outside, in central Beirut's Martyrs' Square or along the seaside boardwalk area.

 Israel's military also announced "extensive strikes" on the Beqaa area in eastern Lebanon and on the south, saying it hit "dozens of terror targets".

It said a surface-to-surface missile fired from Lebanon fell in an open area in central Israel.

Israel's military claimed Saturday to have killed "Muhammad Ali Ismail, commander of Hezbollah's missile unit in southern Lebanon, as well as his deputy and "other senior officials".

  'Precise strike' 

Hours earlier at the U.N. General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah until the country's northern border with Lebanon was secured.

"Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safe," he said.

Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border attacks a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Israel has over the past few days shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 700 people and sparked an exodus of around 118,000 people.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Friday a "precise strike" hit Hezbollah's "central headquarters" underneath residential buildings in Dahiyeh.

Lebanon's health ministry gave a preliminary toll of six dead and 91 wounded.

"I felt like the building was going to collapse on top of me," said Abir Hammoud, a teacher in her 40s.

A second wave of attacks in the same area followed early Saturday, as the Israeli military said it warned civilians to get away from three buildings in the heart of Dahiyeh.

Early Saturday, Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack on kibbutz Kabri in northern Israel, "defending Lebanon and its people".

Israel's military said sirens sounded in the north.

Hezbollah later said it launched "a salvo of Fadi-3 rockets" towards the Ramat David airbase in northern Israel.

  'Incredibly exhausting' 

Israel this week raised the prospect of a ground operation against Hezbollah, prompting widespread international concern.

"We must avoid a regional war at all costs," U.N. chief Antonio Guterres told world leaders, again appealing for a ceasefire.

In Israel, too, many were weary of the violence.

"It is incredibly exhausting to be in this situation. We don't really know what's going to happen, there's talk of a ground offensive or a major operation," said student Lital Shmuelovich.

At the U.N., Netanyahu also addressed the war in Gaza, saying that Israel's military would continue to fight Hamas until it achieved "total victory".

Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink.

"The path to diplomacy may seem difficult to see at this moment, but it is there, and in our judgement, it is necessary," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

  'Outregeous threats' 

The Lebanon violence has raised fears of a wider spillover, with Iran-backed militants across the Middle East vowing to keep fighting Israel.

Netanyahu addressed Iran in his U.N. General Assembly speech, saying: "I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran. If you strike us, we will strike you."

"There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that's true of the entire Middle East."

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi at the Security Council denounced what he called Netanyahu's "outrageous threats to invade other states and kill more people".

Iran's embassy in Lebanon earlier called the strikes on Beirut "a dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game".