An Iranian spy allegedly tipped off Israel about the location of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah before the latter was targeted and killed in a massive airstrike on Friday, the French newspaper Le Parisien has reported.
A Lebanese security source told the daily that Nasrallah was killed in his highly secure underground headquarters built beneath a residential block of six buildings in the heart of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The air raid levelled those buildings, causing massive destruction in the area which lies between the Haret Hreik and Borj el Barajneh districts.
It is still not clear how many people were killed in the huge attack, the largest Israeli attack on the country since the 2006 war.
According to Le Parisien's report, the Iranian informant who was providing intelligence informed the Israelis when Nasrallah would arrive to his group’s headquarters, as Israeli F-35 jets waited in Lebanese airspace.
Nasrallah arrived for an emergency meeting at the underground base accompanied by more than a dozen other Hezbollah and Iranian commanders, including from Iran’s Quds Force regiment, part of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
They arrived shortly after the funeral of Mohammed Hussein Srour, who headed Hezbollah’s drones division and was killed in an airstrike the day before.
After waiting for Nasrallah and the other commanders to gather in a room, the Israeli fighter jets executed the strike.
They "went all out; they didn't want to miss their target," Le Parisien quoted the unnamed Lebanese security source as saying.
At least six two-ton bombs were dropped on the site, causing a massive explosion which could be heard all over the city and sending giant plumes of smoke into the air.
As well as killing Nasrallah, the strike also eliminated more than 20 other Hezbollah operatives of varying ranks, the Israeli military claimed on Sunday.
Hezbollah has confirmed the deaths of senior official Ali Karaki, as well as IRGC Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan.
Israel on Sunday shared the names of several other operatives it claims died in the attack.
The air raid caused a crater between 50 and 70 meters deep, according to a video shared online on Sunday showing the aftermath of the attack which devastated the entire residential block.
Other videos shared online allegedly show Nasrallah’s body being lifted out of the crater. The New Arab could not independently verify this however.