Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Friday, Al Jazeera reported citing a statement from the Lebanon-based militant group.
This came shortly after the Israeli Army on Saturday claimed Nasrallah’s assassination. He was 64.
Ali Karki, a commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and other leaders of the militant group were also killed in the attack in Beirut’s Dahiyeh, the Israeli Army said in a statement.
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that “most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated”.
Shoshani added that Israel would continue to strike Hezbollah, which “still has rockets and missiles and has the capability of shooting many of them simultaneously”.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, six persons were killed and 91 others injured in the strike, Al Jazeera reported.
In a post on X, the Israel Defense Forces said that Nasrallah would “no longer be able to terrorise the world”.
Nasrallah led Hezbollah for more than 32 years.
In its statement on Nasrallah’s death, the Israeli Army’s Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said that the leader was responsible for the “murder of many Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist activities”, according to Al Jazeera.
“The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel – we will know how to reach them,” he said.
Hezbollah said in a statement that Nasrallah had been martyed “following the treacherous Zionist strike on the southern suburbs” of Beirut. It vowed to keep fighting Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people”.
Hezbollah is an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas. Both organisations are backed by Iran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini condemned Nasrallah’s assassination and described Israel’s strikes on Lebanon as “criminal”.
Israel continued to bombard parts of Lebanon on Saturday amid what is said to be the deadliest attack the country has faced since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months amid Tel Aviv’s war on the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said that at least 720 persons have been killed in the country over the past week in Israeli airstrikes, reported AP.
The attacks have also displaced thousands of Lebanese citizens.
The ongoing bombardment in Lebanon is seen as a significant escalation of geopolitical tensions in West Asia.
Israel’s military offensive against Gaza began on October 7 after Hamas launched an incursion into southern Israel, killing 1,200 persons and taking over 200 hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza since then. The attacks have killed more than 40,000 persons, including 16,500 children.
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