The Israeli military announced on Saturday that they had killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in airstrikes carried out on Friday.
Hezbollah have not yet confirmed the death of Nasrallah, who has led the Iran-backed terrorist group for over three decades.
“Yesterday (Friday), September 27th, 2024, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and one of its founders, was eliminated by the IDF, together with Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders, the IDF said in a statement on Saturday.
The IDF said Nasrallah was killed in what they describe as targeted airstrikes on Hezbollah’s headquarters, which were embedded under residential buildings in a suburb of Beirut.
At the age of 32, Hezbollah unanimously elected Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as secretary-general in 1992 to succeed Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi who was killed in a rocket attack by Israeli helicopter gunships in southern Lebanon.
In their statement, IDF said that during his reign, “he was responsible for the murder of many Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist activities.”
“He was responsible for directing and executing terrorist attacks around the world in which civilians of various nationalities were murdered,” the statement added.
The Epoch Times has not been able to independently confirm the claims of Nasrallah’s death.
Earlier, the IDF had also announced that they killed other two senior members of Hezbollah during targeted airstrikes in Lebanon late on Friday.
Muhammad Ali Ismail, the commander of Hezbollah’s Missile Unit in southern Lebanon, and his deputy, Hussein Ahmad Ismail, were “eliminated” during the precise IAF strike, the IDF said in a statement on X.
“Ali Ismail was responsible for directing numerous terrorist attacks against the State of Israel, including the firing of rockets toward Israeli territory and the launch of a surface-to-surface missile toward central Israel on Wednesday,” the IDF said.
Hezbollah has not confirmed or denied Israel’s announcement regarding the deaths.
Friday’s strike on the senior members of the Hezbollah terror organization came just days after the IDF said it had killed Ibrahim Muhammad Qabisi, the head of Hezbollah’s Missiles and Rockets Force during targeting strikes in the area of Dahieh in Beirut.
Other senior commanders of that unit were also killed in the targeted strike, Israel’s military said.
According to the IDF, Qabisi joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and worked in several significant military roles within the terrorist organization, including as a senior officer in Hezbollah, and commander of its Precision Guided Missile Unit.
Qabisi was a “significant source of knowledge in the field of missiles,” and enjoyed close ties to senior military leaders in Hezbollah, the IDF said.
It is not clear how many people were injured or killed during the strike on Hezbollah’s central headquarters and Israel has not yet commented on the death toll.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says six people were killed and 91 wounded in several various Israeli strikes on Friday. The Epoch Times could not independently verify those figures.
On Monday, Lebanese authorities said Israeli strikes killed more than 490 people, including at least 90 women and children, and injured 1,600 more.
In a recorded message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israeli calls to evacuate, saying “take this warning seriously.”
“Please get out of harm’s way now,” Netanyahu said. “Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.”
Friday’s strikes are part of a wider Israeli military offensive targeting Hezbollah’s operations. They came less than an hour after Netanyahu delivered a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York City vowing to continue fighting Hezbollah until the organization is no longer a threat to Israel.
During his appearance, the Israeli leader also defended Israel’s strikes on Lebanon amid concern that its offensive with Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran could spill out into a wider regional conflict.
“We face savage enemies who seek our annihilation, and we must defend ourselves against these savage murderers, [who] seek not only to destroy us but also destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror,” Netanyahu said.
“Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely,” Netanyahu said.
Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times