(Beirut, Jerusalem) Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike near Beirut, dealing a devastating blow to the pro-Iran movement and pushing Lebanon and the Middle East into the unknown.
What you need to know
- Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike Friday evening on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon;
- A Revolutionary Guard general was also killed in the strike, according to Iranian media;
- The Shiite movement confirmed the information on Saturday morning;
- The raid targeted Hezbollah leaders gathered at their headquarters in Dahiyeh;
- Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023 between Israel and Hamas, the Lebanese militant group has supported the Palestinian Islamist movement by firing missiles at northern Israel, which responds;
- Six people were killed and 91 injured in Friday’s strikes, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Read the article “Who was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah? »
The death on Friday of the man who was considered the most powerful man in Lebanon risks destabilizing the country, and constitutes a major victory for Israel against Iran and its allies in the region.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A man walks near the rubble of a building destroyed by Israeli bombing in Beirut on September 28, 2024.
“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has joined his fellow martyrs,” announced Hezbollah, closest ally of Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy, on Saturday, almost 20 hours after the strike.
He was killed with other members of the movement “in a treacherous Zionist raid” on the southern suburbs of Beirut, stronghold of the Shiite movement, Hezbollah added, without specifying their identities.
“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” an Israeli army spokesperson said earlier after the devastating raid which the army said targeted Hezbollah headquarters.
PHOTO ATTA KENARE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A woman strongly denounces the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah during a demonstration in Tehran, September 28, 2024.
With the elimination of Nasrallah, “we have settled our scores” and “we are determined to continue to strike our enemies,” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lebanon and Iran have declared national mourning.
According to an Israeli military statement, Ali Karaké, presented as the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, as well as other executives, were killed alongside Nasrallah in the operation called “New Order”.
A source close to Hezbollah confirmed Karaké’s death.
Hachem Safieddine, a prominent figure in Hezbollah, appears to be a potential successor to his cousin Hassan Nasrallah.
“One of the greatest enemies”
According to the Iranian agency Irna, Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, was killed in Friday’s strike.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A man inspects massive damage on September 28, 2024 in the Hadath neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the day after nighttime Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital on September 28, 2024.
“Nasrallah was one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time,” said army spokesman Daniel Hagari.
At the head of Hezbollah since 1992, Hassan Nasrallah, 64, was a man of religion who was the subject of a veritable cult of personality among the Shiite community in Lebanon. For years he had lived in hiding and rarely appeared in public.
Just after the confirmation of his death, cries rang out in the neighborhoods of Beirut welcoming displaced people from Shiite areas. “Don’t believe them, they’re lying, the Sayed is fine!” », shouts a woman veiled in black on a motorbike with her husband.
According to the army, “most” of Hezbollah’s senior leaders were killed during Israeli operations in recent months.
“Israel has infiltrated Hezbollah”
The attack on Nasrallah “was very sophisticated. This demonstrates not only enormous technological capabilities, but also the extent to which Israel has infiltrated Hezbollah,” explains James Dorsey, researcher at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.
The strikes on the southern suburbs destroyed several buildings, according to an AFP photographer, and forced thousands of residents to flee. According to a provisional report from the Lebanese authorities, at least six people died.
Iraq, Syria, as well as the Houthi rebels of Yemen condemned the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, as did the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, at war against Israel in Gaza.
On Saturday afternoon, warning sirens sounded in central Israel after a missile strike from Yemen, according to the army, with the Houthis later claiming responsibility for a missile strike towards Ben Gurion airport.
Rocket fire by Hezbollah
Financed and armed by Iran, Hezbollah was created in 1982 at the initiative of the Revolutionary Guards.
“The line” of Nasrallah “will continue and its sacred objective will be achieved with the liberation of al Quds (Jerusalem),” promised Tehran.
His predecessor, Abbas Moussaoui, was killed in February 1992 by an Israeli raid on his convoy in Lebanon.
Despite the blows dealt by Israel, which constantly bombs Hezbollah strongholds, the movement announced on Saturday that it had fired rockets against northern Israel, most of which were intercepted.
Last Monday, the Israeli army launched a violent and deadly bombing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, after a year of cross-border firefights with the Lebanese formation.
PHOTO JIM URQUHART, REUTERS
A man stands near a building destroyed by rocket fire in Safed, northern Israel, September 28, 2024.
Hezbollah opened a front against Israel at the start of the Gaza war, sparked by an attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel led by Hamas, its ally.
Israel claims to be acting to stop Hezbollah’s fire towards the north of its territory, bordering southern Lebanon, and thus allow the return of tens of thousands of residents forced to flee.
New strikes
On Saturday, the Israeli army indicated that it had carried out strikes on “140 Hezbollah targets” since Friday evening. A new Israeli strike targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, hitting a building, according to a security source.
The Israeli army announced late Saturday afternoon a new “precise” strike on the same area, with a security source in Lebanon reporting a strike on a warehouse near Beirut airport, adjoining the stronghold of Hezbollah.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A man inspects massive damage on September 28, 2024 in the Hadath neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the day after nighttime Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital on September 28, 2024.
France demanded “the immediate cessation of Israeli strikes in Lebanon”, indicating that it was “opposed to any ground operation” in the country.
Faced with “the deterioration of the security situation”, the European Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency have recommended that airlines avoid the airspaces of Lebanon and Israel until October 31.
Washington ordered the departure of the families of its embassy employees in Lebanon and also “urged” “American citizens to leave Lebanon”, while Berlin announced the evacuation of the families of its diplomats in Israel, Lebanon and the West Bank. busy.
In one year of cross-border exchanges of fire, the number of people killed in Lebanon has reached 1,640 deaths (including 1,030 since September 16), according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, a heavier toll than that of the 33 days of war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Reactions around the world
Washington defends “a measure of justice”, Moscow “strongly condemns”, Tehran promises the “destruction” of Israel, the head of the UN “very worried”… Here are the main reactions on Saturday after the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by Israel.
UNITED STATES
Nasrallah’s assassination is “a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of American, Israeli and Lebanese civilians,” US President Joe Biden said on Saturday. “The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself,” he added.
US Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris called Nasrallah a “terrorist with American blood on his hands.”
Russia
Moscow, a close ally of Tehran, “strongly condemns” the assassination of Nasrallah, believing that Israel would bear “full responsibility” for the possible “dramatic” consequences in the region.
“My impression is that some are trying to provoke Iran, then provoke the United States and then start a total war in the entire region,” declared the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov
Iran
First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref “warned” Saturday that Nasrallah’s assassination would lead to the “destruction” of Israel.
Earlier, the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured that the “glorious line of the leader of the resistance, Hassan Nasrallah, will continue and his sacred objective will be achieved with the liberation of Quds [Jérusalem]If God wills “.
Syria
Syria, an ally of Lebanese Hezbollah, denounced a “despicable aggression” and “contempt for international law” on the part of Israel.
Hamas
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, supported by Iran, denounced a “cowardly terrorist act” by Israel.
Türkiye
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not comment on Nasrallah’s death, but, in a message broadcast after his assassination, declared that “Lebanon and the Lebanese people are the new target of the policy of genocide, occupation and invasion led by Israel since October 7. He also called for an end to Israel’s “attempts to extend its senseless policy […] to Lebanon and other countries in the region.
Germany
Berlin, through its head of diplomacy Annalena Baerbock, deplores a “very dangerous” situation and a risk of “destabilization” which is “not at all in the interests of Israel’s security”.
France
French Prime Minister Michel Barnier estimated that the situation in Lebanon “remains extremely serious” and affirmed “being concerned about the security” of the French there. Paris then called on Israel to “immediately cease” its strikes in Lebanon and not to launch a “land operation”, and “the other actors, and in particular Hezbollah and Iran, to refrain from any action likely to lead […] to a regional conflagration.”
United Nations
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “very concerned about the dramatic escalation” in Beirut over the past 24 hours. “This cycle of violence must stop now and all parties must step back from the precipice,” he added.
Cuba
President Miguel Diaz-Canel denounced a “cowardly assassination” which “seriously threatens regional and global peace and security, for which full responsibility falls on Israel with the complicity of the United States”.
Argentina
Argentine President Javier Milei reacted on X by broadcasting a message from one of the members of his economic council, David Epstein: “Israel has eliminated one of the greatest contemporary assassins […]. Today, the world is a little freer! “.