Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is killed by an Israeli airstrike

In a powerful airstrike in Beirut, Israel killed Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. This was a big blow to the Iran-backed group, which is already reeling from a growing number of Israeli strikes.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that Nasrallah had been killed in Friday’s attack on the group’s main command center in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Hezbollah said he was dead, but they didn’t say how.

Nasrallah’s death is a big loss for both Hezbollah and Iran. He was a key friend who helped make Hezbollah the most important group in Tehran’s network of allies in the Arab world.

President Joe Biden of the United States said that Nasrallah’s death was a measure of justice for the many people that he had killed, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese. He also said that the United States fully backed Israel’s right to self-defense.

Iraqi forces killed deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, a top leader in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in the attacks in Beirut on Friday, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

A live stream from Reuters showed that strikes went on in the southern areas of Beirut all through the early evening on Saturday, sending thick clouds of smoke over the city.

An important member of Hezbollah’s intelligence service was killed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut on Saturday. The soldier was named Hassan Khalil Yassin. So far, Hezbollah hasn’t said anything about this.

On Saturday, air raid sirens went off across the middle of Israel, including in Tel Aviv. The Israeli military said that big bangs were heard after a missile was fired from Yemen and blocked.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it would keep fighting Israel “to support Gaza and Palestine and to defend Lebanon and its loyal and honorable people.”

Najib Mikati, who is acting as Prime Minister of Lebanon, said that his country was in trouble, but he didn’t say anything about Nasrallah’s death. Later, his office said that there would be three days of grief for the Hezbollah leader.

Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, said that Nasrallah’s death would be revenged and that other terrorists would carry on the fight against Israel.

Israel has been at war with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked southern Israel. Since then, there has been a conflict between Hezbollah and Israel that has gotten much worse in recent days.

After it was reported that Nasrallah had died, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV showed verses from the Koran. Gunshots could be heard in Beirut, and witnesses told Reuters that the army of Lebanon had put tanks in the middle of the city.

It shook Beirut when an airstrike happened on Friday. There were several very strong explosions that left a hole at least 20 meters (65 feet) deep.

The Israeli military said Nasrallah was killed in a “targeted strike” on the group’s underground headquarters, which was hidden beneath a residential building in Dahiyeh, a southern Beirut suburb held by Hezbollah.

It said that he was killed along with Ali Karaki, another important Hezbollah leader, and other leaders.

“The strike was conducted while Hezbollah’s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing terrorist activities against (Israeli) citizens” , it stated.

Nasrallah’s death is by far the worst thing that has happened to Hezbollah in the last two weeks. It started with an attack that killed thousands of members’ cell phones.

Many more Israeli bombings were launched against Lebanon a few days later, killing hundreds of people across large parts of the country, including several top Hezbollah leaders.

WHAT HAPPENED

There were a lot of shocked Hezbollah fans on Saturday.

“He was in charge. We loved him very much. “He took care of us,” Zahraa, a fan, told Reuters through tears on the phone from a school where she had been moved overnight.

Hezbollah didn’t say right away who might take over for Nasrallah. Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah leader, has been seen as the heir apparent for a long time. As of now, the group hasn’t said anything about Safieddine’s or any other Hezbollah leaders’ whereabouts since the attack.

Hezbollah kept firing rockets across the border on Saturday, which set off sirens and made people in deepest Israel run for cover. Some of them were stopped by Israeli missile defenses, and no one was hurt right away.

There are more worries that the war could get out of hand, possibly involving Iran, which is Hezbollah’s main backer, as well as the US.

He called Nasrallah the “murderer of thousands of Israelis and foreign citizens” and said that Israel was not at war with the Lebanese people.

Hezbollah has been at odds with Israel since the start of the Gaza war a year ago, when it opened fire to show support for Hamas, the Palestinian group it considers a friend.

They said they would stop firing only when Israel stops its attack in Gaza. Hamas and other groups that support Hezbollah said sad things about his death.

There was a lot of anger in Russia when Israel killed Nasrallah. They asked Israel to stop fighting in Lebanon.

Iran tells Lebanon’s plane not to land

People who lived in Dahiyeh ran away and found safety in downtown Beirut and other parts of the city.

“The strikes yesterday were unbelievable.” In the past, we had run away and then gone back to our homes, but the bombing got worse, so we came here to wait for Netanyahu to stop it, “Dalal Daher said near Beirut’s Martyrs Square, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel says it has been fighting Hezbollah so that tens of thousands of people who had to leave northern Israel can go back home. There are now over 200,000 people living in different places in Lebanon. About half of them have been moved since Monday.

A ministry official told Reuters that Israel told air traffic control at the Beirut airport that it would use “force” if the Iranian plane landed, so the ministry told the plane not to come into Lebanese airspace. The person said it wasn’t clear what was on the plane and added, “People are the most important thing.”

An Israeli source said that Netanyahu was going to hold a security meeting when he got back to Israel on Saturday after cutting short his trip to New York.

According to Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli military, Israeli air force planes were “patrolling the area of the Beirut airport” late Friday night and would not let “hostile flights with weapons land” there.

It was announced on Saturday by an official from Iran Air that all flights to Beirut have been canceled until further notice.

In the past few weeks, Hezbollah has shot hundreds of rockets and missiles at targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv.