Hezbollah confirms Nasrallah's death in Israeli strike, hails him as 'martyr'

In a seismic blow to the Iran-backed group Hezbollah that has been engaged in a year of cross-border hostilities with Israel, its chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut on Friday night as confirmed by the Lebanese movement on Saturday.

Hezbollah said in a statement it would continue its battle against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people”.

“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has moved to the side of his Lord and to his satisfaction as a great martyr, a heroic, bold, brave, wise, insightful and faithful leader, joining the convoy of martyrs of the eternal, luminous martyrs of Karbala in the divine, faithful journey in the footsteps of the prophets and martyr Imams,” it said.

Earlier today, the Israeli military said it had killed Nasrallah in an airstrike on the group’s central headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut a day earlier.

The Israeli military “eliminated … Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a statement on X.

In a post on X, IDF said, “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorise the world.’ The announcement follows Israel’s overnight airstrikes in Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut that it says targetted Nasrallah and other Hezbollah commanders.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday condemned what he called Israel’s “short-sighted” policy in the region.

“The massacre of the defenseless people in Lebanon once again… proved the short-sighted and stupid policy of the leaders of the usurping regime,” Khamenei said in a statement, without mentioning Nasrallah’s fate.

Israel has over the past few days shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 700 people and displaced around 118,000.

Israel’s army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi on Saturday said: “The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel – we will know how to reach them.”

The military also said “most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated”, after having announced earlier the deaths of Hezbollah commanders Muhammad Ali Ismail and Ali Karake, among others.