Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani declared on X that “Hassan Nasrallah is dead.”
The Israeli military reported today that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, had died in an attack on Beirut. News agency AFP was informed by a Hezbollah-affiliated source that Nasrallah, 64, had not been in contact with anyone since Friday night.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani declared on X that “Hassan Nasrallah is dead.”
Following heavy rocket fire from the organization into northern Israel, the Israelis launched strikes that struck dozens of Hezbollah locations in eastern and southern Lebanon. Several residential houses in southern Beirut were flattened overnight by Israeli jets bombarding Hezbollah strongholds.
“Hassan Nasrallah will be unable to terrorize the world any longer,” an official statement from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) stated.
“Our toolkit is not over yet. Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi stated in a statement, “The message is straightforward: whoever threatens Israel’s civilians, we will know how to get in touch with them.
Hours after Hezbollah took credit for firing rockets into northern Israel, there was a series of counterattacks. Hezbollah claimed that one such operation, which used Fadi-1 missiles to target the kibbutz Kabri, was in defense of Lebanon against Israeli “barbaric” aggression.
Largely because of his Shiite backers, Nasrallah is viewed as the only person in Lebanon with the ability to both wage war and mediate peace.
Although there has been no confirmation from Hezbollah or Lebanese media, Israel’s Channel 12 stated that the 64-year-old’s daughter Zainab was killed in one of the bombings targeting Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut.
There were rumors that Nasrallah was assassinated in 2006 after Israel invaded Lebanon. But the Shiite leader reappeared many days later, unscathed. Along with other Hezbollah fighters, Ali Karake, the leader of the organization’s southern front, was also slain by the Israeli strikes.
“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,” a statement from Israel stated. “He was in charge of planning and carrying out terrorist actions that killed individuals of different nationalities all around the world. Nasrallah served as the organization’s primary decision-maker and strategic head.”
Raising the alarm about missiles fired over the Lebanese border, air raid sirens could be heard throughout northern Israel. Two surface-to-surface missiles were fired from Lebanon, one of which fell in an open region and the other of which was intercepted, according to sources from the Israeli military.
As it prepared for a potential worsening, Lebanon’s health ministry issued an order for hospitals in the southern suburbs of Beirut to be evacuated. In order to accommodate patients being moved from the conflict-affected areas, the ministry asked hospitals that are not directly impacted to cease accepting non-emergency cases.
Around 118,000 people have been displaced and over 700 individuals have died as a result of Israeli bombing of Lebanon.
