Hezbollah confirms death of leader Hassan Nasrallah in Israeli air strike

Hezbollah has confirmed that its leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike in Beirut.

A statement on Saturday said Mr Nasrallah, who led the Lebanese group for more than three decades, “has joined his fellow martyrs”.

It vowed that the Iranian-backed militant group would “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine”.

The Israeli military said earlier that the strike was carried out while the Hezbollah leadership was meeting at their headquarters in Dahiyeh.

Abbas Nilforushan, 58, a prominent general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who was sanctioned by the US, also died in the air strike, Iranian state media reported.

The US Treasury had identified Mr Nilforushan as the deputy commander for operations in the Guard.

It sanctioned him in 2022 and said he had led an organisation “directly in charge of protest suppression, which has played a critical role in arresting protest leaders during previous protests.”

Nilforushan also served in Syria backing President Bashar Assad in his country’s decades-long war that grew out of the 2011 Arab Spring that swept the wider Middle East. He also served in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s like many of his colleagues.

Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, was also killed in the attack, the Israeli military said.

Mr Nasrallah has has been in hiding for years, rarely appearing in public. He regularly gave speeches but always by video from unknown locations.

Israel’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi said the elimination of Mr Nasrallah was “not the end of our toolbox”, indicating that more strikes were planned.

The Israeli military said it was mobilising additional reserve soldiers as tensions escalate with Lebanon, activating three battalions of reserve soldiers to serve across the country. The call comes after it sent two brigades to northern Israel earlier in the week to train for a possible ground invasion.

Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said the air strike was based on years of tracking Mr Nasrallah along with “real-time intelligence” that made it viable. He said Mr Nasrallah’s death had been confirmed through various types of intelligence but declined to elaborate.

He said that Israel has inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah’s capabilities over the past week by targeting a combination of immediate threats and strategic weapons, such as larger, guided missiles. But he said much of Hezbollah’s arsenal remains intact and that Israel would continue to target the group.

“This isn’t a threat that has gone away,” he said.

Mr Shoshani said it is “safe to assume” that Hezbollah will retaliate and that Israel is on “high readiness” but he said Israel hopes the blow to Hezbollah will change the course of the war.

“We hope this will change Hezbollah’s actions,” he said. “We have been looking for solutions, looking for a change in reality that will bring our civilians home,” referring to the approximately 60,000 Israelis who have been evacuated from their homes along the Lebanese border for almost a year.

Mr Shoshani declined to say what munitions were used in the strike or provide an estimate on civilian deaths in the strike, only saying that Israel takes measures to avoid civilians whenever possible and clears strikes ahead of time with intelligence and legal experts.

The Lebanese health ministry said six people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes on Friday, which levelled six apartment buildings.

Further strikes were carried out in Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.

Hours before the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations, vowing that his country’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue — further dimming hopes for an internationally backed ceasefire.

Mr Netanyahu abruptly cut his United States visit short and returned to Israel.

Iran’s supreme leader has urged all Muslims to stand by Hezbollah but has not indicated how Tehran will respond to the killing of Mr Nasrallah.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said “it is the duty of all Muslims to stand by the people of Lebanon and Hezbollah” against the “occupier, evil and suppressor” regime of Israel.

In a statement read on state TV, he said “all regional resistance forces” support and stand beside Hezbollah.

Iran’s influential parliamentary committee on national security met on Saturday and demanded a “strong” response against Israel, state TV reported.

More than 720 people have been killed in Lebanon since the conflict escalated on Monday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The United Nations says the number displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon has more than doubled, with more than 211,000 people affected.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel on October 7, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.

Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.