IDF Confirms Death of Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah as Attacks in Lebanon, Israel Continue
JERUSALEM, Israel – The Israel Defense Forces confirmed Saturday that Hezbollah's leader for 32 years and one of its founders, Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, died in the massive Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut Friday.
Israel's Air Force demolished Hezbollah's headquarters Friday in a southern suburb of Beirut, using bunker-busting bombs to obliterate the building. Nasrallah's death completes a near-total wipeout of Hezbollah's leadership structure over the past few weeks. Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah's Southern Front, also died in the attack.
Reuters reports that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has gone into hiding as a precaution against an Israeli attack on Tehran.
The strike on Hezbollah headquarters came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly. The prime minister has returned to Israel.
One Hezbollah source told The Times of Israel that the targeted strikes flattened six buildings, and heavy casualties were reported. One Israeli source told media outlets, “It’s very hard to imagine (Nasrallah) coming out alive from a strike like that.”
Watch Chuck Holton's live reporting as the news of the Beirut strike developed on Friday.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah continues to launch dozens of rockets and UAVs into northern Israel, as sirens sounded throughout Saturday morning and afternoon in the Upper Galilee region and the Golan Heights. The IDF reports it has struck 140 targets in Lebanon since last night.
There are also media reports that Israel has begun a blockade of the Beirut Airport to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Lebanon.
According to The Jerusalem Post, follow-up attacks Saturday in the Beirut neighborhood of Dahiya may also have eliminated Muhammad Ali Ismail, a Hezbollah missile unit commander responsible for an attack on central Israel earlier this week, along with his deputy, Hussein Ahmed Ismail. There are reports an Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Abbas Nilforoushan, may also have been killed.
Israel claims the coordinated attack destroyed weapons depots and armament manufacturing sites in Beirut, while Hezbollah denied the buildings housed weapons.
The Israeli Air Force also attacked sites in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
After the strike in Beirut, Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told JNS News, “We need a victory, and then we move to peace." Danon added, “But first we have to be victorious.” That suggested Israel will not be very responsive to repeated U.S. calls for a ceasefire.
The Israel Defense Forces currently have not changed their plans for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon to eliminate the Hezbollah missile threat to northern Israel that has kept more than 60,000 residents of the north from returning to their homes since October of last year.
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