The head of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah has been killed by Israeli airstrikes, their army have said.
The military claimed that they carried out a precise airstrike while Hezbollah leadership was meeting at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.
Nasrallah’s death marks Israel’s biggest success of the war so far. After three decades in power, Nasrallah moulded Hezbollah into the group it is today.
Last night, before his death had been confirmed experts warned of a ferocious response from Iran. ‘The gates of hell are opening right now, Dr Abed El Qadir Kanaaneh, a Hezbollah expert from Tel Aviv University said.
The Shia cleric leading Hezbollah had been in power since February 1992, overseeing the group in its transition from a militant group forged in the 1982 Lebanon War, against the backdrop of the wider Lebanese Civil War, into a political party and regional powerhouse.
Under the leadership of the 64-year-old Nasrallah, Hezbollah has fought wars against Israel and taken part in the conflict in neighboring Syria, helping tip the balance of power in favor of President Bashar Assad.
If confirmed, his death would deal a massive blow to the Iran-backed group, potentially destabilising Lebanon as a whole. Rarely seen in public, Nasrallah enjoys cult status among his Shiite Muslim supporters and was the only man in Lebanon with the power to wage war or make peace.
A triumphant IDF spokesperson said: ‘Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.’
Israel have killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah (pictured in 2015) in strikes on Beirut
Hassan Nasrallah spoke to the world in front of a red screen last Thursday, insisting that the deadly attacks ‘deserve a response’ before launching salvoes of rockets towards Israel
Israel released a graphic showing the Hezbollah senior figures who had so far been ‘eliminated’ – adding that they had ‘dismantled’ the group
People stand near a picture of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during the funeral of Hezbollah member Ali Mohamed Chalbi earlier this month
Boys scouts carry a picture of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on September 19
An Iranian man raises a picture of Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran yesterday
Flames rise after an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon this morning
People check the devastation in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs, in the aftermath of the first wave of Israeli strikes
Smoke rises from the rubble of a building that which levelled in overnight Israeli bombardment
Families sit on the ground in Martyrs’ square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs
A child sleeps on the ground in Beirut’s Martyrs’ square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh
A child carries styrofoam pieces to use them for shelter at Beirut’s central Martyrs’ Square, where many families spend the night fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes
Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders, were also killed in the attack, the Israeli military said.
Air strikes that left flattened Beirut overnight have restarted this morning, as locals desperately search the wreckage of their city for survivors. The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes Friday, which leveled six apartment buildings.
The Israeli military said it was mobilizing additional reserve soldiers as tensions escalate with Lebanon, activating three battalions of reserve soldiers after sending two brigades to northern Israel earlier in the week to train for a possible ground invasion.
The country say they are now on high alert for a broader conflict – although they say they hope Nasrallah’s death will cause the Iran-backed group to change course.
Israel’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Saturday that the elimination of Nasrallah was ‘not the end of our toolbox.’
He said that the strike targeting Hezbollah leadership was the result of a long period of preparation and they would ‘reach’ anyone who threatens Israel. He added that the army is ‘at full readiness in all of our fronts’.
‘There’s still a way to go. Hezbollah still has rockets and missiles and has the capability of shooting many of them simultaneously,’ military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani added to an online press briefing.
Experts this morning said that Israel appears to be ‘softening’ Hezbollah ahead of a ground invasion.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah addresses the crowd in Beirut’s southern suburbs on January 29, 2004
A Lebanese man showing a poster of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that he found among the rubble of his house in July 2006
A woman helps a boy to wash his head on a street as Beirut residents stay on streets after fleeing their homes following new series of Isaeli strikes in Beirut
The Israeli army launched more than 40 attacks on buildings in various parts of the Dahiyeh area south of Beirut
Smoke rises following Israeli overnight strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut
A fireman fights the blaze of a building hit in overnight Israeli airstrikes in the Kafaat neighbourhood of the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs
Professor Fawaz Gerges, chair of contemporary Middle Eastern Studies at the London School of Economics, told Sky News: ‘What we have now is all-out war. We have been warning about it in the last 12 months.
He continued: ‘Israel has been trying to systematically destroy the leadership structure of Hezbollah – and there are hundreds of leaders who could replace him [Hassan Nasrallah].
‘But this is Israel trying to soften that structure in preparation for a ground invasion.’
And he has warned that Iran could respond to the attack either by launching a direct attack, sending weapons to Lebanon or sending thousands of fighters to Hezbollah.
It comes as the IDF released a graphic on social media showing the Hezbollah senior figures who had so far been ‘eliminated’ – adding that they had ‘dismantled’ the group.
At least six have been killed as the Israeli air force targeted Hezbollah production sites they claimed were under civilian housing, although this number is expected to rise today and charities say the country is facing the prospect of a humanitarian ‘catastrophe’.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP on condition of anonymity that contact with Nasrallah had been lost since Friday evening.
He had been rumoured killed during Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006, the source said, adding that he later re-emerged unscathed.
A military statement said the strikes also killed Ali Karake, who the statement identified as commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and an unspecified number of other Hezbollah commanders.
‘During Hassan Nasrallah’s 32-year reign as the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, he was responsible for the murder of many Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist activities,’ the statement said.
People check a damaged building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Choueifat, south east of Beirut
Lebanese people entering Syria through the al-Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria
Lebanese people entering Syria through the al-Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria
Supporters of Hezbollah attend a televised speech by the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in the Lebanese capital Beirut’s southern suburbs on January 3, 2023
A man shows a photo of Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-general of Hezbollah, as people demonstrate against Israel and the attack on Lebanon at Palestine square in Tehran
A young boy stands in front of a destroyed building in the aftermath of overnight Israeli airstrikes on the Mreijeh neighbourhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs
‘He was responsible for directing and executing terrorist attacks around the world in which civilians of various nationalities were murdered. Nasrallah was the central decision-maker and the strategic leader of the organisation.’
The IDF this morning further claimed to have eliminated the head of the Palestinian Hamas’s network in southern Syria, whom it referred to as Ahmad Muhammad Fahd.
In a statement, they said that he had been killed ‘while planning an imminent terror attack’ and had previously carried out multiple attacks, including rocket fire on the Golan Heights.
And in Lebanon, they said strikes had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in the south of the country, Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy, Hussein Ahmad Ismail, who they claimed had taken part in ‘numerous’ attacks on Israel.
Today, terrified families have been pictured fleeing the country – many of whom are Syrian refugees who have already had to leave due to fighting in their homeland.
Iran’s Supreme Leader is further said to have been moved to secure location under heightened security, two regional officials briefed by Tehran have told 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.
Hassan Nasrallah had become a shadowy figure, seldom making public appearances in spite of his reputation in Lebanon. He came to the world’s attention last week when he vowed swift retaliation for a series of explosions across the country.
Lebanon is still reeling from the detonations of thousands of mobile paging devices and walkie talkies last Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, killing dozens and injuring thousands.
The government held Israel accountable for the attack, but notably it was Hezbollah that threatened direct action. For its part, Israel denies any involvement in the explosions.
ALebanese man showing a poster of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, next to the heavily damaged buildings in 2006
People check a damaged building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Choueifat, south east of Beirut
Debris are scattered along a street in the aftermath of overnight Israeli airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs
Smoke rises from the rubble of a building that which levelled in overnight Israeli bombardment on Beirut’s southern suburbs
Thousands of people are fleeing to Homs, Aleppo, Damascus and Hama provinces in Syria following the Israeli army’s attacks on different parts of Lebanon
Lebanese people have entered Syria in the last three days through the al-Masnaa border crossing
Nasrallah spoke to the world in front of a red screen last Thursday, insisting that the deadly attacks ‘deserve a response’ before launching salvoes of rockets towards Israel.
‘This could be called a declaration of war,’ Nasrallah told his followers, acknowledging that women and children had been killed in the attacks.
‘We have received a very hard hit, but this is the state of war. Through this experience and its lessons we will be stronger and more powerful.’
Nasrallah added that Lebanon would not cease hostilities until the war in Gaza ends, and said that displaced Israelis would not be able to return to their homes – a pressing political point for Israel’s government to resolve.
Under the leadership of the 64-year-old Nasrallah, Hezbollah has fought wars against Israel and taken part in the conflict in neighboring Syria, helping tip the balance of power in favor of President Bashar Assad.
His willingness to stand against Israel, and its main ally in the U.S., earned him respect and popularity from some of those who remember Israel reaching Beirut during its bid to oust the Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon in 1982.
When the civil war ended in 1990, Hezbollah began its transformation into a political party and movement. But it ensured its longevity by holding onto the weapons accumulated through the war and allying ever closer with a post-revolutionary Iran.
Nasrallah was seen as more of a pragmatist than the leaders of Hezbollah in 1982. But he retained authority locally by backing up his threats with willingness to use force.
Ultimately, it was Nasrallah that was credited with the recovery of southern Lebanon, after Israel withdrew in 2000 after years of exchanges.
Lebanese people who fled their homes stay overnight on the streets of Beirut amid the mass exodus from the south of the country
Families carry their belongings in Beirut’s Martyrs’ square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh
Lebanese citizens watch smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon
Locals who fled the city watch their homes burn from higher ground as they take cover from air strikes
Plumes of smoke rise over Beirut’s southern suburbs following overnight Israeli bombardment
Residents check the damaged in the aftermath of overnight Israeli bombardment in Beirut’s southern suburbs
Smoke and fire rise following an Israeli airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon
Plumes of smoke rise over Beirut’s southern suburbs following overnight Israeli bombardment
Who was Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah?
Born in 1960 into a poor Shiite family in Beirut’s impoverished northern suburb of Sharshabouk, Hassan Nasrallah was later displaced to south Lebanon.
He studied theology and joined the Amal movement, a Shiite political and paramilitary organization, before becoming one of Hezbollah’s founders.
Hezbollah was formed by Iranian Revolutionary Guard members who came to Lebanon in the summer of 1982 to fight invading Israeli forces. It was the first group that Iran backed and used as a way to export its brand of political Islam.
A resurgent Iran saw the fiery groups emerging in the Lebanese Civil War as a source of opportunity: to stare down Israel and extend its influence towards the Mediterranean.
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah in 2006
Lebanon’s unique political structure had long undermined the Shia minority, who were now finding a willing ally in Iran. Suddenly, this group had its voice amplified by backers in Tehran.
Some experts still define Hezbollah as a branch of Iran’s military – operating in Lebanon but working towards the IRGC’s objectives.
Still, it was Nasrallah who built the initial power base as Hezbollah became part of a cluster of Iranian-backed factions and governments known as the Axis of Resistance.
Two days after its leader, 39-year-old Sayyed Abbas Musawi, was killed in an Israeli helicopter gunship raid in south Lebanon, Hezbollah chose Nasrallah as its secretary-general in February 1992.
Five years later, the United States designated Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.
Under Nasrallah, Hezbollah was credited with leading the war of attrition that led to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon in 2000, after an 18-year occupation. Nasrallah’s eldest son, Hadi, was killed in 1997, fighting against Israeli forces.
After Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, Nasrallah rose to iconic status both within Lebanon and throughout the Arab world. His messages were beamed on Hezbollah’s own radio and satellite TV station.
That status was further cemented when, in 2006, Hezbollah fought Israel to a stalemate during the 34-day war.
When Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, Hezbollah fighters rushed in, siding with Assad’s forces – even though Hezbollah’s popularity took a dive as the Arab world ostracised Assad.
A day after the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7, Hezbollah began attacking Israeli military posts along the border calling it a ‘backup front’ for Gaza.
In speeches throughout the conflict, Nasrallah argued that Hezbollah’s cross-border strikes pulled away Israeli forces that would otherwise be focused on Hamas.
Hassan Nasrallah speaks on July 25, 2014, during a rare public appearance
He insisted that Hezbollah would not halt its attacks on Israel until a cease-fire is reached in Gaza.
Nasrallah maintained a defiant tone, even as tensions rose dramatically in recent weeks, with Israel announcing a new phase in the conflict intended to push Hezbollah back from the border.
If he has been killed just days into Israel’s dramatic foray forth into Lebanon, Hezbollah’s stability and grip over Lebanon will be shaken. Israel will hope to capitalise on the success – and Iran will faced with difficult and urgent decisions.
Within Lebanon, he oversaw the group – radicalised by the events of the 1982 invasion – develop its social responsibilities towards citizens, often filling in on social services where the crippled government fails to act.
Hezbollah also moved away from hostage taking and suicide bombing in the late 20th century, and under Nasrallah negotiated quick ceasefires in 1996 and 2006.
It comes after Benjamin Netanyahu escalated tensions as it was said he used his New York speech to the UN as a ‘diversion’, with jets hitting the capital moments after he stopped talking while the US said they were not informed of the impending bombardement.
This week airstrikes have killed more than 720 people in Lebanon, including dozens of women and children, according to Health Ministry statistics. A number of people have been injured in Israel.
Patients in hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs are being evacuated to medical centers in the capital and the nearby Mount Lebanon region as they ask the medical centres to make room for people from hard-hit Beirut suburbs.
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.
It comes as a senior Unicef official has said Lebanon is facing the prospect of a humanitarian ‘catastrophe’.
Ettie Higgins, Unicef’s deputy representative in Lebanon, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We are seeing thousands and thousands of people leave the southern suburbs of Beirut towards safety or any area at all that can give them safety.’
Describing children, of whom she said at least 50 had been killed, as ‘terrified’ and hospitals as ‘completely overwhelmed with injured people’, she said the supplies Unicef had positioned in the country in advance of the strikes by Israel were ‘virtually completely used up’.
She added: ‘This week we have seen major water pumping stations destroyed, so urgent efforts are needed to get safe, clean drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people who are now looking for alternative sources of water.
‘So even the most basic essential services of healthcare and water are now being rapidly, rapidly depleted. There was already a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon given that it’s been hosting over 1 million refugees from Syria for over a decade, so it’s rapidly escalating into a catastrophe.’
Smoke has shrouded southern Lebanon this morning as explosives continue to rip Beirut apart.
Israel said they were striking at ‘terror’ targets belonging to Hezbollah, as the proscribed terrorist organisation also launched more than two dozen projectiles toward Israel, triggering sirens in more than 100 cities and towns across Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Hezbollah said on this morning that it had targeted Israeli sites including Rosh Pina in the north with missiles in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese cities, villages and civilians.
The Israeli military said a surface-to-surface missile was fired from Lebanese territory and fell in an open area in central Israel. Israeli media said the missile fell in the sea. No injuries or damages were reported, according to Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services.
The intense bombing began just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech at the United Nations in New York on Friday afternoon vowing to continue the fight against the ‘terror organisation’.
His visit to the US was partly a move designed to ‘trick’ Hezbollah leader Nasrallah into thinking he was safe while the Israeli premier was away, one senior Israeli official revealed.
And just three hours later, Netanyahu gave the green light to the IDF’s ‘unprecedented’ heavy bombardment of the Lebanese capital during a call to defence minister Yoav Gallant, who remained in Tel Aviv.
It has since emerged that Israel did not inform the White House of the impending strikes before they began – despite being in the country and the US being one of Israel’s closest allies.
Speculation was rife last night over whether the leader and his top commanders were alive or mortally wounded in the ‘unprecedented’ attack.
Israel did confirm Nasrallah’s status until this morning, with sources telling US media it was ‘checking’ if he was present in what the US Secretary of State dubbed a ‘precarious moment for the world’.
A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was still alive, and Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe, but the group itself had not spoken on his fate.
However, another source said that Hezbollah’s senior leadership was unreachable following Israel’s strikes.
More than 90 people were injured and the Lebanese health ministry claims six people have died, but the number of casualties is expected to rise.
The reaction was almost immediate, as Hezbollah launched a retaliatory strike into northern Israel, prompting the country’s Iron Dome anti-missile system into action.
Meanwhile, Iran warned Israel it had ‘crossed its red lines’ and branded the attack a ‘game-changing escalation’, further stoking fears of an all-out war in the region.
Remaining unperturbed, further Israeli attacks resumed on Beirut on Friday evening close to 11.30pm, with explosions reported in parts of the city and three buildings reduced to rubble.
This is the moment Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light to ‘unprecedented’ strikes against Hezbollah targets in Beirut, Lebanon
Footage emerging on social media show the intensity of the bombardment over Beirut
Hellscape: The night sky in Beirut turned orange and red amid intense strikes from the IDF
Israeli forces launched the strike in a bid to target Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Beirut has been left a smouldering wreck following a series of intense IDF airstrikes
The strikes came just hours after Netanyahu flew to the US, thereby ‘tricking’ Hezbollah into thinking they were safe, a senior Israeli official said on Frida
Footage emerging on social media showed the night sky over Beirut filled with intense orange flashes, followed by the booms of heaving bombardment, smoke clouds rising and the sounds of people screaming in the near distance.
Israel’s Channel 12 quoted an official as saying ominously: ‘Israel is going to war’.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported that the earlier Israeli strikes had destroyed four buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, causing many casualties. The IDF subsequently confirmed it had attacked Hezbollah in Da’aheh, Beirut on its social media pages.
‘As of this time, there is no change in the directives of the Home Front Command. We will update any changes immediately on the official platforms of the Home Front Command,’ it said.
Iran’s embassy in Beirut described the strikes as a ‘dangerous, game-changing escalation’, calling them a ‘crime‘ that merits ‘appropriate punishment’.
The Israeli military said it would perform ‘targeted strikes’ on weapons belonging to Hezbollah in southern Beirut after it attacked the Dahiyeh neighbourhood, levelling six buildings, with rescue efforts still underway.
In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces said the weapons were being stored beneath civilian buildings in the area.
In a televised address, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israel will not tolerate the civilian airport in Beirut being used for military purposes.
People and rescuers gather near the rubble of a building destroyed in the Israeli air strike
Smoke rises above Beirut’s southern suburbs during the Israeli strike earlier on Friday
Smoke rises above buildings in Beirut, Lebanon on September 27 after an airstrike
Lebanese army soldiers gather over the rubble of a levelled buildings as people flight the flames, following Israeli air strikes kin Beirut
People and first responders stand on the rubble of a building after the attack
Residents said they heard multiple blasts on Friday, believed to be from Israeli ‘shelling’
A funeral ceremony held for the civilians killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier in the week in Beirut, Lebanon
He said: ‘We will not allow arms transfers to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in any way. We know about Iranian arms shipments to Hezbollah and foil them. Air force jets are now patrolling around the Beirut airport.
‘We will not allow hostile flights with weapons to land at the civilian Beirut airport.’
He said the military’s strike on Hezbollah’s central command on Friday was ‘very precise’, but forces were ‘still checking the results’ of the attack.
‘We are assessing the situation, and there is no change in the guidelines. We will update you on any changes immediately.
‘In the last few days, we revealed who Hezbollah is hiding in southern Lebanon, and now we will reveal how it is planting strategic weapons and means of warfare in the heart of Beirut’s Dahieh – so that buildings will serve as a shield.’
A funeral held for the civilians killed in the Israeli airstrike on the town of Jabil in Beirut, Lebanon on September 27
Netanyahu said he had not intended to come to New York to address the UN assembly this year, but felt compelled to do so ‘to set the record straight’
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Israel Air Force Commander Major General Tomer Bar (R) and senior Israeli Air Force (IAF) officials at the IAF command and control centre
Heartbreaking photographs show brave rescuers carrying children from the rubble
Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah said this evening that it had retaliated and fired a salvo of rockets on the city of Safed in Israel, its first announced attack since the strikes in Beirut hours earlier.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has convened an emergency session of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council at his home, the New York Times reported.
Reports of the attacks came minutes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a defiant speech at the UN General Assembly, vowing to continue striking Hezbollah in Lebanon until Israel achieves ‘total victory’.
It said the media office alone would publish in the group’s name.
Hezbollah has not otherwise made any statement about the Israeli strikes, which Israel’s military said struck the group’s central command.
Security sources told Reuters that the attack was the the heaviest in the past year, aimed at an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said: ‘These were not the precision strikes we got used to over the recent days and weeks. This was different.
‘These were unprecedented, multiple, loud and successive explosions – really the loudest explosions that we have heard in the capital.’
Thousands of people were reportedly massed in the area for the funeral of Hezbollah members killed in prior strikes.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the command centre was embedded deep within civilian areas.
Ten teams from Lebanon’s Red Cross were immediately dispatched to the scene.
‘The UN is watching with great alarm,’ UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a briefing upon news of the attack.
The strikes came shortly after Netanyahu vowed to continue the fight against Hezbollah in his UN General Assembly address, insisting: ‘My country is at war, fighting for its life.’
‘We must defend ourselves against these savage murderers. Our enemies seek not only to destroy us, they seek to destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror,’ he told delegates.
In a message he addressed to ‘the tyrants of Tehran’, he said: ‘If you strike us, we will strike you… There is no place in Iran where the long arm of Israel cannot reach. And that is true for the entire Middle East.’
Netanyahu left Israel for New York to trick Hezbollah’s leader into thinking he was safe, a senior Israeli official has told the Telegraph.
His address to the UN ‘was part of a diversion’ intended to make Hezbollah’s leader believe that they would not take action while Netanyahu was physically in the US.
‘Netanyahu approved the strike before delivering his speech at the UN,’ the official said.
Israeli air force jets struck Beirut moments after Netanyahu’s UN speech ended.
Netanyahu’s speech made no mention at all of the 21-day ceasefire proposal made by the US, France and other allies on Wednesday, which seeks to cool tensions and allow space for talks, as the region appears to be on the brink of all-out war.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz previously rejected the push, vowing to keep fighting Hezbollah militants ‘until victory’. Netanyahu’s office said he had ‘not even responded’ to the proposal, and that he had ordered the military ‘to continue the fighting with full force’.
Huge clouds of smoke towered over Beirut on Friday afternoon
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 27, 2024
Pallbearers carry the coffin of Mohammad Surur, head of one of Hezbollah’s air force units who was killed in Israel’s strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday
A rescue worker runs amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli air strike in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs
A rescuer fights the blaze amid the smouldering rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli air strike in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut
People and a fire truck rush to the scene of an Israeli air strike in Haret Hreik
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the attack
Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, seen from Baabda
Hezbollah, for its part, has not commented on the truce proposal.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office told MailOnline: ‘The safety of British nationals is our number one priority and the situation in Lebanon is deeply concerning. Our travel advice is to leave Lebanon and we are doing everything we can to work with commercial airlines to maximise capacity.
‘We continue to plan for a range of scenarios whilst working with our allies to de-escalate tensions and call for an immediate ceasefire.’
The Iranian embassy in Lebanon condemned the attacks, warning of a ‘dangerous escalation’ in the Middle East.
‘This reprehensible crime… represents a dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game,’ the Iranian embassy said in a post on X, adding that Israel ‘will receive the appropriate punishment’.
The Iranian foreign ministry condemned the ‘brutal terrorist air strike on several residential buildings in Beirut’.
‘The continuation of the Zionist regime’s crimes shows clearly that the ceasefire call issued by the United States and some Western countries is a blatant trick aimed at winning time for the Zionist regime to continue its crimes against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples,’ ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned at the UN on Friday that the Middle East was at the precipice of a ‘full-blown’ war as Israel strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Israeli military called for an immediate evacuation of some specific buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.
The United States had no advance warning of an Israeli strike in Beirut and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart as it was ongoing, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Friday.
They were the US government’s first comments about an Israeli operation that defied Washington’s calls for de-escalation and a ceasefire.
‘The United States was not involved in this operation and we had no advanced warning,’ spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
Singh declined to say what Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Austin about the operation and whether it targeted the Iran-backed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The Pentagon declined to speculate on whether Nasrallah was still alive.
Austin and Gallant spoke as the Pentagon chief flew over the Atlantic after a visit to London.
The Biden administration has been seeking to contain the crisis from spiralling further. Austin has publicly warned that an all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah would be devastating. On Thursday, he warned that risk existed but added a diplomatic solution was still viable.
He met with Israel’s strategic affairs minister in New York, telling him the ceasefire would ‘allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes’.
‘Further escalation of the conflict will only make that objective more difficult,’ his spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
A view shows damage at the site of Israeli strike in Saksakiyeh, southern Lebanon September 27, 2024
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre, Lebanon September 27, 2024
Anti-war activists rally outside of the hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu – who is in the city for the UN General Assembly annual sessions – is staying
‘We are winning,’ Netanyahu said triumphantly on Friday, as Israel continues to bombard Lebanon as part of its campaign against Hezbollah, which he labelled a ‘quintessential terror organisation’.
Widespread airstrikes across the country’s south and capital Beirut have left hundreds dead, including civilians, children and paramedics, in just a few days.
Protesters gathered outside the UN condemning Netanyahu, who has vowed to continue with the battle against Hamas until ‘total victory’ is achieved.
He went on to say regarding Israel’s war on Hamas and Hezbollah: ‘We will fight until we achieve victory, total victory, there is no substitute for it.’
His speech was met with cheers from some allies in the audience, but also jeers, with many delegates walking out as he took to the stage.
Netanyahu said he had not intended to come to New York to address the UN assembly this year, but felt compelled to do so ‘to set the record straight’ after what he called ‘the lies and slanders levelled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium.’
He denounced the UN, as he has repeatedly done in the past, labelling it as ‘a house of darkness’ and a ‘swamp of antisemitic bile’ and saying Israel should be treated as fairly as other nations.
He said it the body had passed more resolutions against Israel than all other nations combined over the past decade, adding that the ‘war criminals’ are in Iran, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.
The two speakers who preceded Netanyahu on Friday each made a point of calling out Israel for its actions in Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have been killed over the past year.
Lebanese Red Cross teams conducted search and rescue operations in Nabatieh
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from Lebanon towards Israel on Friday
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted southern Lebanese villages, as seen from Marjaayoun, southern Lebanon, 25 September 2024
‘Mr Netanyahu, stop this war now,’ Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said as he closed his remarks, pounding the podium.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking just before the Israeli leader, declared of Gaza: ‘This is not just a conflict. This is systematic slaughter of innocent people of Palestine.’
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released on Thursday by the Health Ministry.
In recent days, Israel has turned its attention to the border with Lebanon, where it is targeting Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after October 7, saying near-daily rocket fire into northern Israel over the past 11 months was to show its solidarity with Gaza.
Israel faces pressure from its allies over its conduct in Lebanon, with many thousands of civilians displaced by the strikes and hundreds killed.
Shelters set up hastily by the government on Monday quickly became overcrowded, leaving many seeking cover in cars on the side of the road.
‘We struggled a lot on the road just to get here,’ said Issa Baydoun, who fled the village of Shihine when it was bombed.
‘We evacuated our homes because Israel is targeting civilians and attacking them.’
Israel maintains that it is targeting Hezbollah weapons and rocket launchers across southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa region to the north.
Iranian demonstrators came out to protest against the airstrikes targeting Hezbollah
The demonstrators wore white shrouds, a symbolic gesture showing they are prepared to die for their cause
One man holds up a photo on his phone of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who is believed to have been potentially killed in the airstrikes
Demonstrators in Tehran chant during an anti-Israel protest following the strikes on Friday
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said Israel intends to keep operations ‘as short as possible’ and insisted the military makes ‘vast efforts not to hit civilians’.
‘Regarding the high number of casualties, every one is a tragedy in Lebanon,’ he said.
But fears mount that strikes could soon lead to a full ground invasion.
The Israeli government also faces immense pressure at home to ensure those displaced by the conflict in the north can return to their livelihoods.
Some 60,000 people have been evacuated from since Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza.
Major General Herzi Halevi edged the threat of ground invasion further on Wednesday, telling troops to prepare for boots on the ground.
He said the punishing airstrikes this week were designed to ‘prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.’
The Israeli military has said in recent days it had no immediate plans for a ground invasion, but Halevi’s comments were the strongest yet suggesting troops could move in.
Israel said Wednesday it would activate two reserve brigades for missions in the north – another sign that Israel plans tougher action.
‘This will enable the continuation of combat against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation,’ it said in a statement.
Major General Herzi Halevi (left) visits troops on the northern border on Wednesday
Rescuers check the destruction following an overnight Israeli airstrike on Friday
Lebanese people, fleeing southern Lebanon, walk with their belongings along the Damour highway towards Beirut amid a mass exodus of displaced people seeking shelter
Israel has reported several successful missions targeting Hezbollah’s senior command in recent days as it stretches its operations in Lebanon.
The IDF shared footage this week purporting to show the Israeli Air Force (IAF) striking Muhammed Hussein Srour in a building in Beirut on Thursday.
Srour – the leader of Hezbollah’s Aerial Command – had been behind ‘numerous aerial terror attacks… aimed at the people of Israel’ over the years, according to the IDF.
Military officials said Ibrahim Kobeisi, directing the group’s missile and rocket unit, was killed during its bombardment of Beirut on Tuesday.
‘Other key commanders’ were said to be with Kobeisi at the time, but it was not clear whether any were killed or wounded.
Israel’s said on Monday it had targeted senior Hezbollah leader Ali Karaki in another airstrike on Beirut – but Hezbollah later claimed he had survived and been moved.
Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah’s military operations and acting commander of the Radwan Force, was among 16 commanders killed when devices exploded across Lebanon last week.
Almost 800 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon over the last week, according to Lebanese figures.
Ongoing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border.
Israel is vowing to step up its attacks on Hezbollah until its citizens can return safely to their homes.
The joint ceasefire statement made on Wednesday said the situation in Lebanon has become ‘intolerable’ and ‘is in nobody’s interest, neither of the people of Israel nor of the people of Lebanon’.
Israel denied responsibility for the attack.