Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut strike, group confirms

Tel Aviv and Beirut (CNN) — The leader of the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his underground headquarters in Beirut on Friday, Israel and Hezbollah confirmed.

Nasrallah, who had led the powerful group for more than 30 years and was a hugely influential figure in the region, died when Israeli fighter jets struck in an area of the capital’s southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh.

The killing of Nasrallah marks a significant escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which has intensified in recent weeks, prompting fears that it could spill over into a regional war.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Nasrallah had been operating from the headquarters and “advancing terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel.”

Hezbollah described Nasrallah as a “sacred martyr” and vowed to continue its fight against Israel. He was among several Hezbollah fighters – and a senior Iranian commander – killed in the strike on Friday.

“The leadership of Hezbollah pledges to the most supreme, sacred, and dearest martyr in our journey, filled with sacrifices and martyrs, that it will continue its fight to confront the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people,” the group said in a statement.

The Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV channel switched to Quranic recitations – an Islamic gesture declaring mourning. Hamas issued a statement mourning Nasrallah, as did other regional allies. In Lebanon, Prime Minister Najib Mikati declared three days of mourning. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared five days of national mourning and warned that Israel faces “crushing blows” to come. The powerful Iraqi cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr also announced three days of mourning in Iraq, referring to Nasrallah as a “companion in the path of resistance.”

Nasrallah turned Hezbollah into the most robustly armed non-state group in the region – commanding a dedicated following across Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. It is the most dominant political force in crisis-ridden Lebanon. Much of the Western world has designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

Fears of an all-out war peaked earlier this month, after Israel unleashed a wave of lethal explosions of communications devices, targeting Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. Some of those killed were civilian bystanders.

Then on Monday, Israel launched an intensive aerial campaign in southern and eastern Lebanon, in what was the deadliest day for the country in nearly two decades. Hezbollah has fired multiple rocket barrages into northern Israel in response to the attacks.

Israeli bombs in Lebanon have since killed at least 700 people, and thousands more have been injured, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday.

Nearly 120,000 others have been displaced, according to OCHA, in a country where both Lebanese and refugees from other countries were already facing sharp poverty, economic instability and limited access to healthcare. Estimates in Lebanon suggest that number could be much higher.

An Israeli military official said they did not yet know how many civilians were killed in Israel’s strike on southern Beirut that killed Nasrallah.

Questions have swirled over how the Iran-backed group will respond to Israel’s persistent bombing campaign, and now the killing of its leader. Hezbollah’s response has so far been relatively contained. Israeli officials cited two key reasons for this: Nearly all of Hezbollah’s senior commanders have been killed, leaving its command-and-control structure in disarray, and Israeli airstrikes have debilitated much of the operational infrastructure Hezbollah would use to carry out significant retaliation.

But one Israeli official acknowledged that Israel knows it has not taken out Hezbollah’s entire capabilities and that its senior commanders are replaceable. How Hezbollah regroups and what direction it receives from Iran also remain to be seen.

A senior member of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC), was also killed in the Israeli attack, according to Iranian state media. Abbas Nilforoshan, who served as a military adviser during the Syrian civil war, was likely meeting Nasrallah when Israel struck.

The commander was sanctioned by the US treasury for his role in suppressing protests during the 2022 Iranian demonstration after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody of Iran’s morality police.

Israel expands war on multiple fronts

For most of the past year, Israel and Hezbollah have traded skirmishes at the border, following Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks into southern Israel. Hamas killed 1,200 in the attacks and abducted more than 250 others, according to Israeli authorities.

Hezbollah says it has been firing on Israel in solidarity with Hamas, and Palestinians trying to survive Israeli attacks in Gaza, which have killed 41,586 people and injured another 96,210, according to the Ministry of Health there.

Around 60,000 Israeli civilians have been forced from their homes by Hezbollah rocket fire that began on October 8.

The Lebanese militant group is part of a larger Iran-led axis across the region – spanning Yemen, Syria, Gaza and Iraq – that says it will continue striking Israeli targets as long as the war in Gaza rages on.

As the Israeli military intensifies its war on multiple fronts in the region, Western allies have warned of catastrophic consequences in Lebanon – which they say could even exceed the irrevocable destruction and human devastation in Gaza.

The strike that killed Nasrallah was also a clear signal that Israel was not close to accepting a ceasefire proposal with Hezbollah, backed by the US, according to Mick Mulroy, a former top Middle East official at the Defense Department. Hezbollah is also now unlikely to be interested in the negotiations.

On Saturday, US President Joe Biden called Nasrallah’s killing a “measure of justice for his many victims,” including Americans, but called for de-escalation.

The US “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups,” Biden said in a statement. “Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means,” he added.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces renewed their attacks in the densely populated Dahiyeh neighborhood into Saturday. Israeli strikes razed buildings to rubble. At least 33 people were killed and 195 others injured in Saturday’s attacks, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Since Monday, Israel’s attacks in Lebanon have left around one million people displaced, according to Nasser Yassin, the minister in charge of Lebanon’s crisis management center.

A CNN team on the ground reported large flashes and thuds of impacting Israeli missiles echoed across the capital Saturday. Officials announced that hospitals in Dahiyeh would be evacuated “due to developments in the aggression.”

The IDF said it was targeting what it alleges are buildings used by Hezbollah as command centers, weapons productions and storage sites. Hezbollah has denied that its weapons are being stored in civilian buildings targeted by Israeli strikes.

The IDF said a senior Hezbollah intelligence leader, Hassan Khalil Yassin, was killed in a Saturday airstrike in the Dahiyeh area. The IDF said Yassin worked with Hezbollah’s offensive units to personally plan terror attacks against Israeli civilians on the northern border and deep within Israeli territory.

‘Biggest crisis of all’

Gunfire erupted in Beirut on Saturday afternoon – a gesture to mark martyrdom, believed by Muslims to be one of the highest honors in Islam.

Many Hezbollah supporters were initially skeptical after Israel said it believed Nasrallah had been killed. Moments before Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death, a woman and a man said they expected the group’s leader to “surprise us all with an appearance.”

“He’s not in Lebanon. I know in my heart he isn’t,” said one elderly Shia woman in a black chador, smiling. Less than five minutes later, the announcement of his death came. “He was martyred,” she kept repeating.

“This is the biggest crisis of all,” she added. A man trying to console her said: “Martyrdom was what he wanted … And it’s what he received.”

Another woman broke down crying as she recited verses from the Quran with tears streaming down her face.

In the Dahiyeh neighborhood, where Nasrallah was killed, loud chants of: “We submit to you Nasrallah,” and “We will never accept humiliation,” were heard.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq, Jomana Karadsheh, Hamdi Alkhshali and Kara Fox contributed reporting.