Hezbollah confirmed the death of Hassan Nasrullah in Israeli air attack
The Labnese group Hezbollah has confirmed the death of Hassan Nasrallah, its longtime leader, in an air strike on the group’s underground headquarters near the capital, Beirut.
Hours after Israel claimed killing the 64-year-old Nasrallah, the Iran-backed Hezbollah on Saturday said its leader “has joined his fellow martyrs” and pledged it would “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine” amid fears that a regional war is now inevitable.
Israel carried out a large strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday evening, which it said targeted the Hezbollah leader, flattening at least six residential buildings.
Nasrallah had rarely been seen in public since 2006. He was elected secretary-general of Hezbollah in 1992, aged 32, after an Israeli helicopter gunship killed his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi.
The Hezbollah confirmed in a statement its leader had been killed “following the treacherous Zionist strike on the southern suburbs” of Beirut.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had “settled the score” with Nasrallah’s killing.
“we settled the score with the one responsible for the murder of countless Israelis and many citizens of other countries, including hundreds of Americans and dozens of French,” he said in his first statement since the Hezbollah chief’s killing on Friday.
Netanyahu said that as long as “terrorist” Nasrallah was alive, he could have “quickly restore the capabilities we had eroded from Hezbollah” in a series of recent operations.
“So, I gave the order – and Nasrallah is no longer with us.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared five days of mourning for the Hezbollah chief. He called on all Muslims to rise against Israel and said Nasrallah’s blood “will not go unavenged”.
“The fate of this region will be determined by the resistance with Hezbollah at the top,” Khamenei said.
The country’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a post on X that “the glorious path of the Resistance leader … will continue and his sacred goal of liberating Jerusalem will be achieved.” Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif praised Nasrallah as a “symbol of the fight against oppression”.
US President Joe Biden called the killing of Nasrallah “a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese civilians.”
Biden reiterated US support for “Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups.” His statement said he had directed the defence secretary to “further enhance the defence posture of US military forces” in the region.