New Delhi: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a strike on Beirut, the Israeli military said today. A source close to Hezbollah told news agency AFP that communication with the 64-year-old Nasrallah was lost since Friday night.
“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced on X.
The Israeli strikes targeted dozens of Hezbollah sites in eastern and southern Lebanon following intense rocket fire by the group into northern Israel. Israeli jets bombarded Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut overnight, flattening several residential buildings.
“Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorise the world,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
“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.
This wave of retaliatory strikes occurred just hours after Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching rockets into northern Israel. One such attack targeted the kibbutz Kabri using Fadi-1 rockets, which Hezbollah stated was in defence of Lebanon against Israeli “barbaric” aggression.
Nasrallah, who holds immense power in Lebanon, particularly among his Shiite supporters, is widely seen as the only figure capable of waging war or brokering peace.
The 64-year-old’s daughter Zainab was killed in one of the airstrikes targeting Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut, Israel’s Channel 12 reported, however, there has been no confirmation from Hezbollah or Lebanese media.
Nasrallah was rumoured to have been killed in 2006 following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. However, the Shiite leader reemerged days later unhurt. The Israeli strikes also killed Ali Karake, commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and other Hezbollah members.
“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,” an Israeli statement read. “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.”
Air raid sirens were heard across northern Israel, signalling an imminent threat from rockets launched across the Lebanese border. According to Israeli military reports, two surface-to-surface missiles were fired from Lebanon, one falling in an open area, while the other was intercepted.
Lebanon’s health ministry ordered the evacuation of hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs, bracing for further escalation. The ministry urged unaffected hospitals to stop admitting non-emergency patients to make room for those being relocated from the conflict-hit areas.
The Israeli bombing of Lebanon has killed more than 700 people and displaced around 118,000.
