Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah has been killed in an air attack on Lebanon’s capital Beirut, according to Israel’s military and the Lebanese group, in what is a significant blow to Hezbollah as it reels from an escalating campaign of Israeli attacks.
“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced on X on Saturday.
Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and additional Hezbollah commanders were also killed in the massive air strike in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh on Friday, the Israeli military said. The strike levelled six apartment buildings while injuring 91 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
“Most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated,” Shoshani said.
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death later on Saturday and pledged to keep up the fight against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people”.
The statement confirmed Nasrallah was killed with other group members “following the treacherous Zionist strike on the southern suburbs” of Beirut.
‘Larger than life’
Nasrallah, 64, led the Iran-backed group for more than 32 years, serving as a political and spiritual leader who guided Hezbollah to a place of prominence in Lebanon.
Among his supporters, the Shia leader was lauded for standing up to Israel and defying the United States. To his enemies, he was 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.”
“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 will 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 largely defined Nasrallah’s leadership, he was a divisive figure in Lebanon and the wider Arab world due to Hezbollah’s operations in Syria and beyond.
Nasrallah also had numerous domestic foes, including Sunni and Druze political forces which Hezbollah has clashed with. In the years before his death, he was rarely seen in public due to security concerns.
Israel’s military, in its statement announcing 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”.
Israel says its attacks will continue
While many in Israel celebrated the killing of Nasrallah, Israel’s military said it still had a “ways to go” in the fight against Hezbollah and would continue targeting its leaders.
“Hezbollah still has rockets and missiles and has the capability of shooting many of them simultaneously,” said Shoshani, adding that the Iran-backed group was believed to have “tens of thousands of rockets”.
The army’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi said: “The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel – we will know how to reach them.”
Nasrallah’s death is a major blow to Hezbollah, which has been hit by a wave of unprecedented attacks in recent weeks, including pager and walkie-talkie explosions targeting its members.
“It is going to be extremely hard for the people of Lebanon who believe in the resistance to accept this assassination and the news of his death,” military analyst Elijah Magnier told Al Jazeera.
“There is no other leader of the same charisma – not the leadership but the charisma – that Nasrallah enjoyed in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East among those who supported the resistance.”
Dekker said Nasrallah’s death also means the loss of a “major asset in the region” for Iran, where protesters have taken to the streets.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained defiant amid Nasrallah’s fate, saying Israel had not seriously hurt Hezbollah’s “strong structure”, and urging Muslims around the world to stand with Hezbollah in confronting Israel.
“Let the Zionist criminals know that they are far too insignificant to cause any major damage to the strong structure of Hezbollah in Lebanon,” said Khamenei in reference to Israel.
“By the grace of God, Lebanon will make the invading, wicked, and discredited enemy regret their actions,” he said.
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 of those displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon has more than doubled, with more than 211,000 people now displaced. At least 20 primary healthcare centres have shut down in hard-hit areas of Lebanon, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Residents have fled Dahiyeh, seeking shelter in downtown Beirut and other parts of the city following the waves of Israeli attacks that killed Nasrallah.
Dekker said that how Iran and Hezbollah move forward will pose major questions for the region.
“What is Iran going to do? Is Iran going to respond? How will Hezbollah regroup?” Dekker said.
Meanwhile, Tehran-based journalist Tohid Asadi told Al Jazeera that nobody is expecting Khamenei to outline a forthcoming plan of action.
“So we have to wait for the next hours and days to see what takes place on the ground,” Asadi said.
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