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Boys scouts carry a picture of Nasrallah during the funeral of Hezbollah member Ali Mohamed Chalbi, after hand-held radios and pagers used by Hezbollah detonated across Lebanon, September 19. (Reuters)
Israeli officials speculate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah may have been killed in a targeted IDF strike in Beirut
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is believed to have been killed in the targeted IDF air strikes on the Iranian-backed outfit’s central headquarters in Beirut on Friday, according to unnamed Israeli officials.
“Hard to believe he [Nasrallah] got out of it alive,” an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post, adding that the Hezbollah chief had been one of the targets of the deadly IDF airstrikes on Friday. The Israeli newspaper said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorised the strike before addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Read More: ‘If You Strike Us, We Will Strike You’: Israel PM Netanyahu’s Big Warning For Iran At UN
‘Precise strike to target Nasrallah’
Israeli attack on Friday rocked the Lebanese capital, sending thick clouds of smoke billowing over the city. This marks the heaviest assault on Beirut in nearly a year of ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, The Times Of Israel reported. After the Beirut strike, IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said that they were probing the status of Nasrallah and would update soon.
“We used a highly precise strike to target Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was hiding in civilian buildings in the Dahiya neighbourhood of Beirut.”
When asked about whether others were killed, he said, “Once we’ve finished investigating, we will update you on the details.”
Iran’s Emergency Meeting and its ‘Red lines’
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called an emergency session of the country’s Supreme National Security Council at his home Friday, The New York Times reported, citing two Iranian officials with knowledge of the meeting. President Masoud Pezeshkian also condemned the strikes as a “flagrant war crime” that “has revealed once again the nature of this regime’s state terrorism.”
Ali Larijani, adviser to Khamenei, said Israel “is crossing Tehran’s red lines, and the situation is becoming serious.” “Assassinations will not solve Israel’s problem… With the assassination of resistance leaders, others will take their place,” Larijani told Iran’s state TV, amid speculation that Nasrallah had been killed. “The resistance has strong commanders and cadres, and every commander who is martyred will have a replacement,” he said.
Several Hezbollah Commanders Killed
The attack on Nasrallah came as the IDF increased its strikes on Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy group that has repeatedly targeted Israel. For the past year, the IDF and Hezbollah have been involved in a limited cross-border conflict, which has been happening alongside the war in Gaza.
In another update, the Israeli army said Saturday it killed the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in southern Lebanon in an air strike, along with his deputy and several other leaders of the group. Israeli fighter jets killed “Muhammad Ali Ismail, the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in southern Lebanon, and his deputy,” the military said in a statement, adding that “other Hezbollah commanders and terrorists were eliminated”.
The statement said Ismail was “responsible for many acts of terrorism…including rocket launches towards the territory of the State of Israel and the launch of a surface-to-surface missile towards the centre of the country last Wednesday”. The Israeli military said it also killed Ibrahim Muhammad Kabisi and “other senior officials in Hezbollah’s missile and rocket array”.
‘If you strike us, we will strike you’
Meanwhile, the UN has repeatedly condemned this week’s sharp escalation of violence in Lebanon. “We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many express their fear that this is just the beginning,” the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza, said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken appealed again for a ceasefire, after a US-led bid for a truce failed earlier this week. “The path to diplomacy may seem difficult to see at this moment, but it is there, and in our judgement, it is necessary,” Blinken said.
The Lebanon violence has raised fears of wider turmoil in the Middle East, with Iran-backed militants across the region vowing to keep up their fight with Israel. Netanyahu took aim at Iran in his UN General Assembly address, saying: “I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran. If you strike us, we will strike you.” “There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that’s true of the entire Middle East,” he added.
(With agency inputs)
