BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah group acknowledged Saturday its leader and one of its founding members. Hassan Nasrallahwas killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern outskirts of Beirut.
The killing of the longtime leader of the powerful armed group, which has ruled Lebanon and the entire Middle East for more than 30 years, has shocked Lebanon and the entire Middle East.
Nasrallah has been on Israel’s hit list for decades, with Israel implicated in a number of deadly attacks targeting Israel and Jews. His assassination is by far the largest and most significant Israeli targeted killing in recent years, and significantly escalates the war in the Middle East. Hezbollah is backed by Iran, Israel’s biggest regional rival.
The Israeli military announced that it had carried out Friday’s precise airstrike Meanwhile, Hezbollah leaders were meeting at their headquarters in Dahieh, south of Beirut.
Immediately after confirmation from Hezbollah, people began firing into the air in Beirut and across Lebanon to mourn Nasrallah’s death.
“Sayed, I wish it were our children and not yours!” one woman said, using the honorific title for Nasrallah, as she cradled her baby in the western city of Baabda.
“We don’t believe he was killed,” a tearful woman dressed in black told Al-Manar television in Bekaa, western Lebanon. “That’s not true. We left our homes and came here for him and the resistance.”
In his first public remarks since the killing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s targeting of Nasrallah was “a necessary condition for achieving the goals we have set.”
“He wasn’t just another terrorist. He was a terrorist,” Netanyahu said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said Nasrallah’s killing would help return displaced Israelis to their northern homes and put pressure on Hamas to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza. But he warned that the coming days would pose “significant challenges” as threats of retaliation grew and he warned Iran not to attempt an attack.
“There is no place in Iran or the Middle East that Israel’s long arm cannot reach. And today we see how true that is,” he said.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six people were killed and 91 injured in Friday’s attack on six apartment buildings. The Israeli military said Hezbollah’s Southern Front commander Ali Karki and other commanders were also killed.
A Hezbollah statement said Nasrallah, who has led Hezbollah for more than 30 years, “has joined the ranks of the martyrs.” The group vowed to “continue our holy war against the enemy and support Palestine.”
invasion across borders
Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in support of Gaza on October 8, a day after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack against Israel, killing about 1,200 people and abducting another 250. It started firing. Since then, the two countries have escalated their cross-border offensives and defenses. strike.
Israel has vowed to increase pressure on Hezbollah until it halts attacks that have displaced tens of thousands of Israelis from communities near the Lebanese border. The latest fighting has displaced more than 200,000 Lebanese in the past week, according to the United Nations.
Earlier this month, thousands of explosives were Hidden inside a pager or walkie-talkie A bomb used by Hezbollah exploded, killing dozens and injuring thousands, including many civilians. It is widely believed that Israel is behind the attack. In addition to the attack that killed Nasrallah, Israel has also killed several senior Hezbollah officials in Beirut, particularly in the past two weeks.
Smoke billowed and streets were deserted in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Saturday after heavy Israeli airstrikes overnight. Evacuation centers were overflowing with evacuees. Many families slept in public squares, on beaches or in their cars. Hundreds of people could be seen fleeing on foot, carrying infants and whatever belongings they could carry, on roads leading into the mountains above the capital.
Hezbollah allies lament
The Palestinian militant group Hamas sent its condolences to its ally Hezbollah, saying that “the assassination will only strengthen the determined and determined resistance of Lebanon and Palestine.”
Iran’s supreme leader announced five days of national mourning, and Khamenei called Nasrallah the region’s “standard-bearer of resistance.”
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tehran, waving Hezbollah flags and chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to the murderer Netanyahu.”
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Iravani, sent a letter to the heads of the United Nations and the Security Council on Saturday, calling for an emergency council meeting on the attack that killed Nasrallah.
He wrote that Israel killed Nasrallah, Iranian General Abbas Nirforshan, and others “using 1,000-pound bunker busters supplied by the United States.”
He warned Israel not to attack diplomatic facilities, consulates or their representatives. “Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent rights under international law and will do everything possible to protect its vital national and security interests,” Irabani said.
Thomas Juneau, a professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Public and International Affairs, said Iran will be under enormous pressure to respond to Nasrallah’s killing without escalating violence in the region.
“Iran understands that its military options are limited given the traditional military superiority of Israel and the United States,” Juneau told The Associated Press.
Israel vows to continue attacking Hezbollah
Israel’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Helzi Halevi, said on Saturday that killing Nasrallah was “not the end of our means” and suggested further attacks were being planned. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called it “the most significant targeted attack since the founding of Israel.” Late Saturday, Gallant’s office announced he would meet with military leaders to discuss expanding military activity along Israel’s northern front.
The military announced Saturday that it would mobilize three more reserve battalions to serve across the country. Two brigades have already been sent to northern Israel in preparation for a possible ground invasion.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Israel has inflicted significant damage on Hezbollah’s capabilities over the past week by targeting immediate threats and strategic weapons such as large guided missiles. But he said much of Hezbollah’s arsenal remained intact and Israel would continue to target the group.
Shortly after Prime Minister Netanyahu returned from a visit to the United States on Saturday afternoon, air raid sirens sounded throughout central Israel, including Tel Aviv International Airport.
The Israeli military announced that it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen. Yemen-based Houthi rebels later announced that they were behind the attack that targeted Ben Gurion Airport.
The Israeli military has updated guidelines for Israeli citizens, canceling gatherings of more than 1,000 people due to threats.
Some 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes along the Lebanese border for almost a year. This month, the Israeli government said: Stop Hezbollah attacks in the north of the country The official goal is to allow residents to return to their homes.
Strikes continue on both sides of the border
On Saturday morning, Israeli forces carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, including targeting an anti-ship missile storage facility in the Beirut suburb of Dahieh. Israel said the missiles were stored under a civilian apartment building. Hezbollah fired dozens of projectiles into northern and central Israel and deep into the Israeli-occupied West Bank, damaging several buildings in the northern town of Safad.
The Israeli military has once again warned Lebanese residents to stay away from Hezbollah’s fighting equipment and facilities, including in the southern suburbs of Beirut and in southern Lebanon. The US State Department has issued a warning asking Americans to leave the country.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed a total of 1,030 people, including 156 women and 87 children, in less than two weeks, the country’s health minister announced on Saturday.
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Mr. Lidman reported from Tel Aviv. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell, Kareem Chehaib and Ahmad Moussa in Beirut; Loujain Joe, Baabda, Lebanon. Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv; Nasser Karimi and Mehdi Fatahi from Tehran, Iran. Eleanor H. Reich of Washington; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Michael Weissenstein in New York contributed to this report.
