2024-09-29 12:41:25
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in yesterday’s strikes in Beirut. This was announced by the Israeli armed forces on the X social network.
He was killed by a precision airstrike during a meeting of the Hezbollah leadership in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital. Nasrallah headed the Shia organization for more than three decades.
On Friday, Israel struck Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut and said Nasrallah was dead. However, information later emerged from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and the Iranian news agency Tansim that he had survived.
“Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world,” the Israeli army said in a statement today.
Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 28, 2024
Hezbollah has not yet confirmed the leader’s death. Yesterday’s air attack in Beirut killed six people and injured 91 people. The Israeli army said it also killed a number of other commanders, including Ali Karaki, commander of the southern front.
The 64-year-old cleric is the subject of a veritable cult of personality in Lebanon, where he is the most influential person. He lives illegally and rarely appears in public, AFP recalls.
Earlier, Israel announced that it was mobilizing three more battalions of reservists. The decision was made ahead of the start of the Jewish holiday period, when tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank typically rise, Reuters noted.
After the announcement of Nasrallah’s death, the Chief of the General Staff of the IDF, Gen. Herzi Halevi promised to “reach out” to anyone who threatens his country.
“We have not exhausted all the means at our disposal. The message is simple: whoever threatens the citizens of Israel, we will know how to hit him,” the general stressed in his statement.
According to an AFP source close to the pro-Iranian movement, contact with Nasrallah has been lost since last night.
The Israeli armed forces added that yesterday’s strike in Beirut also killed Ali Karakeh, commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, as well as other commanders of the movement.
“During his 32-year rule as the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah was responsible for the murder of many civilians and Israeli soldiers, as well as the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist acts,” the Israeli command stressed. “He was responsible for leading and carrying out terrorist attacks around the world, in which civilians of various nationalities were killed. Nasrallah was the main strategic leader and made the main decisions in the organization,” added the Israeli armed forces.
The killing of the 64-year-old Shia cleric, if confirmed, would be one of the heaviest blows Israel has ever dealt Hezbollah, DPA noted. It would be difficult to predict how the organization would react or what its consequences would be for the region as a whole.
Nasrallah joined Hezbollah (“Party of God”) in 1982. After Israel killed his predecessor Abbas al-Moussawi in 1992, he became the group’s leader and turned it into a formidable military force, helping to establish many close ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which is the group’s most important supporter and supplier.
In 2000, he witnessed the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon, occupied in 1982, and led Hezbollah during the 2006 Israeli invasion, which he described as a “divine victory” for his organization.
Reuters reported that according to its sources, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been moved to a safe place under increased security.