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Israeli Forces on Saturday, eliminated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, dealing its most devasting blow to the Lebanese terror organization after months of fighting.
Though, there was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, if the claim turns out to be true, Nasrallah is by far the most powerful target to be killed by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah, AP reports.
The military said it executed a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leadership met at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.
“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced on X on Saturday.
Also, Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and additional Hezbollah commanders were neutralized in the massive air strike, the Israeli military claimed.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said a total of six people were killed and 91 injured in the bombardment, which levelled six apartment buildings.
Israeli air attacks continued to hammer Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas of Lebanon on Saturday.
While Hezbollah issued no formal statement on Nasrallah, a source close to the group told the AFP news agency that contact with him had been lost since Friday.
Nasrallah, 64, has led the Iran-backed group for more than 32 years, serving as a political and spiritual head guiding Hezbollah to a place of prominence in Lebanon.
Among his supporters, the Shia leader is lauded for standing up to Israel and defying the United States. To his enemies, he is the head of a terrorist organisation and a proxy for Iran in its tussle for influence in the Middle East.
“Hassan Nasrallah is a larger-than-life figure when it comes to the politics in the Middle East. He is the figurehead, Iran’s linchpin, if you will,” said Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker.
“He really created Hezbollah into the organised fighting, disciplined force that it is today.”
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“He is not just a symbolic figure, he is a man who is behind the strategic thinking, the military thinking,” added Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr from Beirut. “No doubt this would be a major setback for the organisation.”
Nasrallah’s regional influence was on display over nearly a year of conflict ignited by the Gaza war, as Hezbollah entered the fray by firing on Israel from southern Lebanon in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
While conflict with Israel has largely defined Nasrallah’s leadership, he is a divisive figure in Lebanon and the wider Arab world due to Hezbollah’s operations in Syria and beyond.
Israel’s military, in its statement claiming Nasrallah’s killing, accused the leader of being responsible for the “murder of many Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist activities”.
The military said it had not finished targeting Hezbollah leaders.
“The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel – we will know how to reach them,” said the army’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi.
Nasrallah’s death would mean the loss of a “major asset in the region” for Iran, said Dekker.
“The day ahead is a big question mark for the region – what is Iran going to do? Is Iran going to respond?”
However, responding to the claimed assassination, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime (of Israel)”.
Khamenei, who Reuters reported had been transferred to a secure location inside Iran, did not mention Nasrallah in his comments. He added, “The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront.” Israeli “criminals must know that they are far too small to cause any significant damage on the strongholds of Hezbollah in Lebanon,” he said. “All the resistance forces in the region support and stand alongside Hezbollah.”
