Lebanon: Hezbollah confirms death of leader Hassan Nasrallah

The Israeli military reported carrying out a "precise strike" in Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiyeh, a day after the attack that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. 

The Israeli military released a brief statement confirming the strike, with further details yet to be provided. This area is known as a Hezbollah stronghold and has been a focal point in the escalating conflict.

Russia on Saturday strongly condemned Israel for killing Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and urged it to immediately cease military action in Lebanon.

"We decisively condemn the latest political murder carried out by Israel," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement, adding: "we once again insistently urge Israel to immediately cease military action."

Air raid sirens sounded across central Israel on Saturday - including Tel Aviv - and large bangs were heard after a missile was fired from Yemen and intercepted, according to the Israeli military.

Lebanon’s Health Minister announced that the death toll from Israel’s ongoing war, which began on October 8, has risen to at least 1,640, with over 8,408 people injured.

The minister noted that many remain trapped under debris, and among the dead are 104 children and 194 women.

The conflict has also claimed the lives of 41 health workers, with 111 others wounded.

The search continues for missing persons and body parts amidst the devastation.

Air raid sirens were activated at Tel Aviv's international airport shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived, signaling a possible threat.

Similar sirens were also heard in other regions across Israel, indicating heightened tensions and potential missile threats amid the ongoing conflict.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that there must not be a delay in reaching a "comprehensive ceasefire" in the Middle East, and said a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians remains the way out of the region's tensions.

Yemen's Houthis said on Saturday that the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of their Lebanese ally Hezbollah, in an Israeli strike would strengthen their determination to confront "the Israeli enemy".

"The martyrdom of... Hassan Nasrallah will increase the flame of sacrifice, the heat of enthusiasm, the strength of resolve," said a statement from the leadership council of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, vowing to achieve "victory and the demise of the Israeli enemy".

The UN refugee chief said Saturday that more than 50,000 people had fled to Syria amid escalating Israeli air strikes on Lebanon.

"More than 50,000 Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon have now crossed into Syria fleeing Israeli air strikes," Filippo Grandi said on X, adding that "well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon."

More than 50,000 Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon have now crossed into Syria fleeing Israeli airstrikes. Well over 200,000 are displaced inside Lebanon.

Relief operations are underway, including by UNHCR, to help all those in need, in coordination with both governments. pic.twitter.com/Qcvdw79z8A

— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) September 28, 2024

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned on Saturday the Israeli killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as a "crime".

The Friday attack on Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold that killed the Iran-backed group's leader was a "shameful attack" and "a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines", Sudani said in a statement, calling Nasrallah "a martyr on the path of the righteous".

A senior general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps was killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, state media reported Saturday.

General Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of Guards operations, "was killed in Israel's attack on Lebanon that assassinated the Hezbollah chief," said the official IRNA news agency, giving no further details.

The Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut where the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike was a legitimate military target under international law, the Israeli military spokesperson said on Saturday.

Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari also said that Israel had issued stricter guidelines to civilians by limiting the size of gatherings in areas of central Israel to 1,000 people.

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad reported that 11 people were killed and 108 injured in Israeli airstrikes yesterday.

Since Israel intensified its bombing campaign on Monday, over 700 people have been killed across Lebanon, further escalating the conflict.

Iran's foreign ministry said Saturday the path of Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah will continue despite his killing in an Israeli air strike after a year of cross-border clashes between the two sides.

"The glorious path of the leader of the resistance, Hassan Nasrallah, will continue and his sacred goal will be realised in the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem), God willing," said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani in a post on social media X mourning his death.

Hezbollah has confirmed the death of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a statement mourning his passing as a "great martyr."

The group praised Nasrallah for his nearly 30-year leadership, during which he guided the movement from "victory to victory."

Hezbollah expressed condolences to key figures such as Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and vowed to continue its resistance against Israel, defending Lebanon and supporting Gaza.

The leadership honoured Nasrallah's legacy, pledging to uphold his mission.

Israeli media reports indicate that around 85 "bunker-buster" bombs were used in recent strikes.

These ground-penetrating munitions are designed to burrow deep before exploding, capable of destroying underground bunkers and heavily fortified structures.

Each bomb weighs between 2,000 and 4,000 pounds, with the ability to penetrate up to 30 metres of earth or six metres of concrete.

Their powerful shockwaves can also collapse nearby buildings.

The Geneva Convention prohibits the use of such weapons in densely populated areas due to the high risk of civilian casualties.

Airlines should avoid Lebanese and Israeli airspace for the coming month, the European Union said Saturday, amid an escalation in air strikes and rocket fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The European Commission and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) warned in a statement of "an overall intensification of air strikes and degradation in the security situation".

They issued an official recommendation "not to operate within the airspaces of Lebanon and Israel at all flight levels".

Provisionally lasting until October 31, the Conflict Zone Information Bulletin (CZIB) "can be reviewed earlier and adapted or withdrawn", the statement added.

"EASA will continue to closely monitor the situation, with a view to assess whether there is an increase or decrease of risks for EU aircraft operators as a result of the evolution of the threat," the body said.

Israeli bombardment of the southern outskirts of Beirut on Friday hit its highest intensity since the state's last war with Hezbollah in 2006.

Palestinian group Hamas said in a statement it mourned the death of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, announced by Hezbollah on Saturday.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group on Saturday confirmed its leader Hassan Nasrallah had been killed, after Israel said it had "eliminated" him in a strike on south Beirut a day earlier.

"Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years," Hezbollah said in a statement.

An Iranian official told US broadcaster NBC that Tehran will begin registration for deploying forces to Lebanon in the coming days,  after Israel's deadly strikes on Beirut that reportedly killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Ayatollah Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, Iran’s deputy for international affairs, said officials will grant permission for forces to be deployed in Lebanon and the occupied Golan Heights.

"We can send forces to Lebanon to fight against Israel, just as we did in the year 1981," he says.

France's foreign ministry said on Saturday that according to its information Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was indeed dead, after Israel said it had killed him a day earlier.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has yet to issue any statement on the status of Nasrallah, its leader for 32 years.

"According to the information we have, Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah, would indeed have died," the French foreign ministry said in a statement

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned Saturday what he described as Israel's "short-sighted" policy after strikes on Lebanon that Israel said killed Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah.

"The massacre of the defenceless people in Lebanon once again revealed the ferocity of the Zionist rabid dog to everyone, and proved the short-sighted and stupid policy of the leaders of the usurping regime," Khamenei said in a statement, without mentioning Nasrallah's fate which has not been confirmed by the group.

A new Israeli strike hit a building in Hezbollah's south Beirut bastion Saturday, a Lebanese security official told news agency AFP, after Israel earlier said it killed group leader Hassan Nasrallah during intense bombardment.

"A new Israeli strike targeted Beirut's southern suburbs," the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, adding it hit "a building".

The Israeli army said on Saturday that it had eliminated the head of the Palestinian Hamas's network in southern Syria, whom it referred to as Ahmad Muhammad Fahd, overnight on Friday.

Hezbollah on Saturday claimed a rocket attack on northern Israel, the first after heavy Israeli strikes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs overnight.

"Defending Lebanon and its people, and responding to the barbaric" Israeli attacks "on cities and villages and civilians", Hezbollah fighters targeted kibbutz Kabri in northern Israel "with a salvo of Fadi-1 rockets", the group said in a statement.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been transferred to a secure location inside the country with heightened security measures in place, two regional officials briefed by Tehran told news agency Reuters.

The sources said Iran was in constant contact with Lebanon's Hezbollah and other regional proxy groups to determine the next step after Israel announced that it had killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on south Beirut on Friday.

The health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday that at least 41,586 people have been killed in Israel's war on the Palestinian territory, now in its 12th month.

The toll includes 52 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry, which said 96,210 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since October of last year.

A source close to Lebanon's Hezbollah group said Saturday contact had been lost since last evening with chief Hassan Nasrallah, after Israel said it had "eliminated" him in a strike on the group's southern Beirut bastion.

"Contact with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been lost since Friday evening," said the source, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. He did not confirm whether Nasrallah had been killed.

Israeli forces have killed Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the military's Arabic-speaking spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on Saturday, a day after an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

"Hassan Nasrallah is dead," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced on X.

Military spokesman Captain David Avraham also confirmed to news agency AFP that the Hezbollah chief had been "eliminated" following strikes Friday on the Lebanese capital.

Smoke rose from Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday morning and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes.

Explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, with flames lighting up the pre-dawn darkness.

Fire raged from at least one location, and smoke and flames were seen from above Beirut early Saturday. Residents reported jets flying overhead.

In a short statement, the Israeli military described the sites it hit as belonging to Hezbollah. Authorities there did not immediately acknowledge if there were any casualties.

According to news reports, shelters set up in the city center for people displaced by the onslaught were overflowing.

Many families slept in public squares and beaches, or in their cars.

On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.

A massive airstrike in south Beirut this evening. Past airstrikes on the southern suburbs have occurred without many people inside Beirut proper hearing it. Literally everybody I know says the explosion rattled their homes, even deep into the city. pic.twitter.com/F7EPVzE7YM

— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) September 27, 2024

Patients in hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs will be evacuated to medical centers in the capital and the nearby Mount Lebanon region, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

In a statement carried by state news agency early Saturday, the ministry called on hospitals in Beirut and Mount Lebanon to stop receiving cases that can be delayed in order to receive patients evacuating from the hard-hit southern suburb Dahiyeh.

The ministry’s decision came after a night of Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, a predominantly Shiite district.

The ministry also called on hospitals and medical centers to care for ill people who fled Dahiyeh overnight as a result of the airstrikes.