The Israeli military confirmed on Saturday that its airstrike in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, killed Hassan Nasrallah, the over three decades’ leader of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The Friday afternoon strike was the latest in a series of massive explosions targeting leaders of the militant group, which has been firing rockets and drones across Lebanon’s southern border into Israel for almost a year.
The Israel Defense Forces according to CBS News, said in a Saturday statement that Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, “was eliminated by the IDF, together with Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders” in a strike by Israeli fighter jets on the group’s command facility “embedded under a residential building” in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have long been a stronghold of the U.S.-designated terrorist group.
“The strike was conducted while Hezbollah’s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel,” the IDF said.
The Friday strikes levelled multiple high-rise apartment buildings in the biggest blasts to hit the Lebanese capital since Hezbollah started firing on Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in response to Israel launching its war on the group’s Hamas allies in the Gaza Strip.
At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded in the strike, Lebanon’s health ministry said Friday, noting that the toll could rise as people were believed to be buried under rubble at the site.
