 "Israeli strike targeting Nasrallah in Beirut kills 2, injures 76; Hezbollah leader's fate unclear")
At least two people were killed and 76 wounded in a huge Israeli air strike in Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs Friday, said Lebanon’s health ministry.
“The successive Israeli enemy strikes on Haret Hreik in Beirut’s southern suburbs, in a preliminary toll, killed two people and wounded 76, including… 15 that required hospitalisation,” a ministry statement said.
Times of Israel quoted Channel 12 news saying that the assessment in Israel is that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in tonight’s IDF strike on the terror group’s underground HQ in Beirut.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the latest Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, and the Israeli military is checking whether he was hit or not, US news website Axios said on Friday, citing an Israeli source.
However, a source close to Hezbollah said that Hassan Nasrallah was “fine” after a massive Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday that Israeli media said targeted the group’s leader, AFP reported.
“Sayyed Nasrallah is fine,” the source said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Leading Israeli television networks reported that Nasrallah was the target of the strike.
Meanwhile, the United Nations on Friday said it was alarmed by Israeli strikes on a “densely populated” area in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“The UN is watching with great alarm” the strikes on Beirut, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a briefing.
“Anyone who looks at the pictures of smoke billowing from a densely populated area should be alarmed,” he added, saying: “We are trying to gather more information as we speak.”
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the strike targeted “the central headquarters” of Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of the city.
The strikes came soon after Netanyahu vowed to continue targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We will continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met,” he told world leaders at the UN. In a separate statement, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also vowed to defeat Israel’s “enemies near and far”.
Almost a year after the start of its war in Gaza, Israel has turned its focus on Lebanon, significantly ratcheting up its campaign against its archenemy Hezbollah. Among many in Lebanon, there is fear that Israel’s military operations in Lebanon would follow the same Gaza playbook: Evacuation orders, mass displacement and overwhelming airstrikes. Israel says its strikes target Hezbollah weapons sites and militants.
On Monday, Israel struck 1,600 targets across Lebanon, killing 492 people and wounding 1,645, and causing a massive wave of displacement as thousands fled from south Lebanon north. It was a staggering one-day toll that shocked a nation used to war. It was by far the deadliest barrage since the monthlong 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war when an estimated 1,000 people in Lebanon were killed.
With inputs from agencies.
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