Hassan Nasrallah – the secretary general of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group – was killed Friday by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in what constitutes a major escalation of Israeli military action in Lebanon, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
“Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world,” the Israeli army announced on X.
Nasrallah, 64, was in a bunker beneath the group’s main headquarters in Beirut on Friday when Israeli military planes dropped bombs that “razed six buildings” and eliminated several top Hezbollah names in a targeted attack on the leader long-time terrorist.
The Israeli army confirmed that it had also neutralized Muhammad Ali Ismail – the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in southern Lebanon – as well as his deputy, Hussein Ahmad Ismail, and other “commanders and agents” present at the meeting .
This latest strike comes after Israel killed three senior Hezbollah military commanders earlier in the week. These strikes are said to have killed more than 700 soldiers and civilians.
Nasrallah was a founding member of the Iran-backed militant group and had been its sole leader since 1992, when his predecessor and co-founder Abbas al-Musawi was also killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Israeli officials told the Post that Nasrallah was at the center of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance.” His death is seen as a major victory in the ongoing campaign against hostile regional forces in the wake of Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7.
The Israeli army posted a warning on its X account after the attack.
“Hezbollah has more than 150,000 rockets intended to kill Israeli civilians,” the text reads. “Some are strategically placed under civilian populations.
“We called on Lebanese civilians present in certain buildings in the Dahiya neighborhood to move away from areas used by Hezbollah. »
The targeting of Nasrallah on Friday was followed by another series of bombings in Beirut early Saturday. These actions are widely seen as a dangerous escalation of the ongoing war in the region.
The international community has expressed fear that these bombings in Lebanon will inevitably lead to an even wider war in the Middle East.
“The shock waves caused by the unprecedented death and destruction in Gaza now threaten to push the entire region into the abyss,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierez told the Security Council on Friday.
“The war in Lebanon could lead to a new escalation involving external powers. »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a fiery speech at the United Nations on Friday. Dozens of dignitaries demonstrated as he spoke, leading Bibi to accuse the UN of being an “anti-Semitic bile swamp.”
Netanyahu also turned his anger on Iran for supporting terrorism. “I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran: if you hit us, we will hit you.”
The bombing required a response from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who convened an emergency session of the country’s Supreme National Security Council at his home on Friday, according to a report.
The bombs would be dropped on Beirut shortly after his speech, in which he once again avoided any talk of a ceasefire.
It is unclear who will take over as Hezbollah’s secretary general after Nasrallah’s death.
