Men show photos of Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-general of Hezbollah, as people demonstrate against Israel and the attack on Lebanon at Palestine square in Tehran on 28 September 2024. Photo: ATTA KENARE / AFP
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on the group's central headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut a day earlier.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah has yet to issue any statement on the status of Nasrallah, who has led the group for 32 years.
The Israeli military "eliminated ... Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization," Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a statement on X.
"Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world," the Israeli military said in a post on X on Saturday.
Israel launched a new wave of airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs and other areas of Lebanon on Saturday, a day after carrying out the massive attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh.
Reuters witnesses heard more than 20 airstrikes before dawn on Saturday. Abandoning their homes in the southern suburbs, thousands of Lebanese congregated in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.
"They want to destroy Dahiye, they want to destroy all of us," said Sari, a man in his 30s who gave only his first name, referring to the suburb he had fled after an Israeli evacuation order. Nearby, the newly displaced in Beirut's Martyrs Square rolled mats onto the ground to tried to sleep.
Israel's military said early on Saturday that about 10 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory and that "some" had been intercepted. A statement from the military did not identify the projectiles, which it said were detected after sirens sounded in the Upper Galilee area.
An unprecedented five hours of continuous strikes early on Saturday followed Friday's attack, by far the most powerful by Israel on Beirut during nearly a year of war with Hezbollah. It marked a sharp escalation of a conflict that has involved daily missile and rocket fire between the two sides.
The latest escalation has sharply increased fears the conflict could spiral out of control, potentially drawing in Iran, Hezbollah's principal backer, as well as the United States.
A portrait of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hangs on the wall of a heavily damaged apartment in the Hadath neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs on 28 September 2024 in the aftermath of overnight Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital. Photo: AFP
Israel has not said whether it tried to hit Nasrallah, but a senior Israeli official said top Hezbollah commanders were targeted.
"I think it's too early to say... Sometimes they hide the fact when we succeed," the Israeli official told reporters when asked if the strike on Friday had killed Nasrallah.
Earlier, a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive. Iran's Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Tehran was checking his status.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah's missile unit, Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy Hossein Ahmed Ismail.
Photo: RABIH DAHER/AFP
Death toll rises
Hours before the latest barrage, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations that his country had a right to continue the campaign.
"As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely," he said.
Several delegations walked out as Netanyahu approached the lectern. He later cut short his New York trip to return to Israel.
Lebanese health authorities confirmed six dead and 91 wounded in the initial attack on Friday - the fourth on Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs in a week and the heaviest since a 2006 war.
The toll appeared likely to rise much higher. There was no word on casualties from the later strikes. More than 700 people were killed in strikes over the past week, authorities said.
Hezbollah's al-Manar television reported seven buildings were destroyed. Security sources in Lebanon said the target was an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based.
Hours later, the Israeli military told residents in parts of Beirut's southern suburbs to evacuate as it targeted missile launchers and weapons storage sites it said were under civilian housing.
Hezbollah denied any weapons or arms depots were located in buildings that were hit in the Beirut suburbs, the Lebanese armed group's media office said in a statement.
Alaa al-Din Saeed, a resident of a neighbourhood Israel identified as a target, told Reuters he was fleeing with his wife and three children.
"We found out on the television. There was a huge commotion in the neighbourhood," he said. The family grabbed clothes, identification papers and some cash but were stuck in traffic with others trying to flee.
"We're going to the mountains. We'll see how to spend the night - and tomorrow we'll see what we can do."
Around 100,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced this week, increasing the number uprooted in the country to well over 200,000.
Israel's government has said that returning some 70,000 Israeli evacuees to their homes is a war aim.
Fear the fighting will spread
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and missiles against targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv. The group said it fired rockets on Friday at the northern Israeli city of Safed, where a woman was treated for minor injuries.
Israel's air defence systems have ensured the damage has so far been minimal.
Iran, which said Friday's attack crossed "red lines", accused Israel of using U.S.-made "bunker-busting" bombs.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was not informed of that strike beforehand. President Joe Biden was being kept abreast of developments.
At the UN, where the annual General Assembly met this week, the intensification prompted expressions of concern including by France, which with the US has proposed a 21-day ceasefire.
"This must be brought to an end immediately," French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told a Security Council meeting.
At a New York press conference, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: "We believe the way forward is through diplomacy, not conflict... We will continue to work intentionally with all parties to urge them to choose that course."
Hezbollah opened the latest bout in a decades-long conflict with a missile barrage against Israel immediately following the 7 October attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza last year.
- Reuters
