ShareJERUSALEM/BEIRUT: The Zionist entity killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a powerful airstrike in Beirut, dealing a huge blow to the Iran-backed group as it reels from an escalating campaign of Zionist attacks. The Zionist military said on Saturday it had killed Nasrallah in the strike on the group’s central command headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs a day earlier. Hezbollah confirmed he had been killed, without saying how.
His death is not only a major blow to Hezbollah, but also to Iran, removing an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Tehran’s constellation of allied groups in the Arab world. A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, was also killed in Zionist attacks in Beirut, Iranian media reported on Saturday.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it would continue its battle against the Zionist entity “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people”. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV aired Quranic verses after his death was announced. Bursts of gunfire were heard in Beirut. The Zionist military said sirens rang out Saturday in central areas of the country as a missile fired from Yemen was intercepted, with journalists reporting hearing explosions over Jerusalem.
Friday’s airstrike – a succession of massively powerful blasts that left a crater at least 20 m deep - shook Beirut. The Zionist entity carried out further airstrikes on the area and more widely in Lebanon on Saturday. The Zionist military said earlier that Nasrallah was eliminated in a “targeted strike” on the group’s underground headquarters beneath a residential building in Dahiyeh - a Hezbollah-controlled southern suburb of Beirut.
It said he was killed along with another top Hezbollah leader, Ali Karaki, and other commanders. “The strike was conducted while Hezbollah’s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing terrorist activities against the citizens of (the Zionist entity),” it said. Middle East expert James Dorsey described Friday’s attack as “very sophisticated”, adding it “demonstrates not only significant technological capacity but just how deeply (the Zionist entity) has penetrated Hezbollah”. Nasrallah’s death is by far the most significant blow in a
devastating fortnight for Hezbollah, starting with a deadly attack on thousands of wireless communications devices used by its members. The Zionist entity also significantly ramped up airstrikes in Lebanon, killing several top Hezbollah commanders and hundreds of other people across wide areas of the country.
Hezbollah gave no immediate indication of who might succeed Nasrallah. Senior Hezbollah official Sayyed Hashem Safieddine has long been regarded as heir apparent. The group has not issued any statement on Safieddine’s status or that of any other Hezbollah leaders – apart from Nasrallah – since the attack.
Friday’s attacks on Dahiyeh were followed by more strikes on the area and other areas of Lebanon on Saturday. Huge explosions lit up the night sky, and more strikes hit the area in the morning. Smoke rose over the city. Hezbollah continued its cross-border rocket fire on Saturday, setting off sirens and sending residents running for shelter deep inside the Zionist entity.
The escalation has increased fears the conflict could spin out of control, potentially drawing in Iran, Hezbollah’s principal backer, as well as the United States. Hezbollah has been waging hostilities with the Zionist entity since the eruption of the Gaza war a year ago, when it opened fire declaring solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas. Hezbollah has said it would only cease fire when the Zionist entity’s Gaza offensive ends. Hamas and other allies of Hezbollah issued statements mourning his death.
Hamas condemned Nasrallah’s assassination “in the strongest terms” and criticized the strikes on southern Beirut as “barbaric Zionist aggression and targeting of residential buildings”. “We consider it a cowardly terrorist act,” the group said in a statement that offered “condolences, and solidarity with the brothers in Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon on the martyrdom of... Nasrallah”.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said Nasrallah’s killing would strengthen their determination to confront their Zionist foes. “The martyrdom of... Hassan Nasrallah will increase the flame of sacrifice, the heat of enthusiasm, the strength of resolve,” the rebels’ leadership council said in a statement, vowing to achieve “victory and the demise of the (Zionist) enemy”.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned the slaying of the Hezbollah chief as a “crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines”. In a statement, he called the Zionist strikes on south Beirut a “shameful attack” and described Nasrallah as “a martyr on the path of the righteous”.
Residents have fled Dahiyeh, seeking shelter in downtown Beirut and other parts of the city. “Yesterday’s strikes were unbelievable. We had fled before and then went back to our homes, but then the bombing got more and more intense, so we came here, waiting for Netanyahu to stop the bombing,” said Dalal Daher, speaking near Beirut’s Martyrs Square, referring to Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Zionist entity says it has been attacking Hezbollah with the aim of allowing tens of thousands of residents evacuated from the north to return home. In Lebanon, well over 200,000 people have been displaced, around half of them since Monday.
Lebanon’s transport and public works ministry asked an Iranian plane not to enter Lebanese airspace after the Zionist entity warned on Friday air traffic control at the Beirut airport that it would use “force” if it landed, a source at the Lebanese transport ministry told Reuters. The source said it was not clear what was on the plane, adding: “The priority is people”.
Late on Friday, Zionist military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Zionist air force planes were “patrolling the area of the Beirut airport” and would not allow “hostile flights with weapons to land” there. “We know about Iranian arms transfers to Hezbollah and are thwarting them,” he said. Iran Air has canceled all flights to Beirut until further notice, the airline’s spokesman told local media on Saturday. – Agencies
