Hezbollah chief Nasrallah targeted in Israeli airstrikes on group’s headquarters in Beirut soon after Netanyahu’s U.N. address

Source close to armed group says Nasrallah is alive; Mr. Netanyahu cuts short U.S. visit to return immediately to Israel; Pentagon declines to speculate on whether the Hezbollah leader is still alive

Leading Israeli television networks reported that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was the target of a massive Israeli air strike in a Beirut suburb on Friday (September 27, 2024). The airstrikes followed soon after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly.

“Target of the strike: Nasrallah. The IDF (Israeli military) is checking whether the secretary-general of Hezbollah was in the building in the heart of Dahiyeh (that was hit),” Channel 12 reported.

Public broadcaster Kan 11 said: “Target of the strike in Dahiyeh - Nasrallah.”

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said: “We are not commenting on this.”

The left-leaning Haaretz newspaper also reported that Nasrallah was the target.

“Israel targets Hezbollah chief Nasrallah in massive Beirut strike,” read a headline in Haaretz’s online edition.

Nasrallah is alive, says Hezbollah source

Following the airstrikes, a source close to the armed group told Reuters that Nasrallah is alive.

Netanyahu cuts short U.S. visit

Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu cut short a visit to the United States after addressing the U.N. General Assembly.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu decided to return to Israel earlier than planned, and will depart from the United States this evening,” a statement said, while his office confirmed he was originally scheduled to arrive back in Israel on Sunday (September 29, 2024).

U.S. did not have advanced warning of Israeli strike: Pentagon

The United States did not have advanced warning of an Israeli strike in Beirut and U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart as the operation was ongoing, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Friday (September 27, 2024).

“The United States was not involved in this operation and we had no advanced warning,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.

Ms. Singh declined to say what Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Mr. Austin about the operation and whether it indeed targeted Nasrallah. The Pentagon also declined to speculate on whether the Hezbollah leader was still alive.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military said it carried out a “precise strike” on the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut.

The Israeli Army’s spokesman, Daniel Hagari, made the announcement in a televised address after the explosion in Beirut sent massive clouds of orange and black smoke billowing in the skies.

A series of intense Israeli airstrikes hit one of Beirut’s heavily populated southern suburbs on Friday (September 27, 2024) as blasts were heard throughout the Lebanese capital.

The massive explosion was so powerful it rattled windows and shook houses some 30 kilometers north of Beirut. Ambulances were seen headed to the scene of the explosions, sirens wailing.

The strike came an hour after thousands of people attended the funeral of a top Hezbollah commander who was killed the day before.

“Earlier in the day, an Israeli airstrike killed a family of nine in a Lebanese border village,” authorities said, as Lebanon struggled to deal with a rising death toll, a wave of tens of thousands fleeing their homes, and the possibility of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.

As the two sides continued to trade fire, Mr. Netanyahu addressed world leaders at the U.N., vowing to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals along the Lebanon border, further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire.

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Israel dramatically intensified its airstrikes in Lebanon this week, saying it is determined to put an end to more than 11 months of Hezbollah fire into its territory. The scope of Israel’s operation remains unclear, but officials have said a ground invasion to push the militant group away from the border is a possibility. Israel has moved thousands of troops toward the border in preparation.

That has Lebanese fearing a repeat of the last Israel-Hezbollah war, in 2006, which lasted a month and wreaked heavy destruction over parts of their country. Or worse, they fear, Lebanon could suffer devastation on the scale wreaked in Gaza by Israel’s nearly year-long campaign against Hamas.

At least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes early Friday (September 27, 2024), Health Minister Firass Abiad said, “bringing the death toll in Lebanon this week to more than 720.” He said the dead included dozens of women and children.

The Israeli military said it carried out dozens of strikes over the course of two hours around the south on Friday (September 27, 2024), including in the cities of Sidon and Nabatiyeh. It said it was targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and infrastructure. It said Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets toward the northern Israeli city of Tiberias.

Lebanon ground operation to be swift, reports AFP

Earlier in the day, an Israeli security official said that any ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon would be carried out as swiftly as possible.

“We will try to do it as short as we can,” the official told journalists, speaking anonymously in line with security rules. “I think that we are preparing that every day, and for sure that is inside our toolbox.”

The comments came as Israel and Hezbollah traded fire after the United States and its allies failed to secure a halt in clashes that have killed more than 700 people in Lebanon this week.

The Israeli security official said the Israeli strikes had killed many Hezbollah militants and significantly curtailed the Iran-backed group’s military capabilities.“I think that they lost many capabilities,” the official said.

Beyond degrading Hezbollah’s capacity to fire on Israel, the goal of Israeli military operations in Lebanon are to kill its military leadership and “clean” border areas so displaced Israelis can return to their homes in the north.

Israel’s army chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, raised the possibility of a ground operation against Hezbollah this week, and the security official said on Friday (September 27, 2024) that “all options are on the table”.

“Since Monday, Israeli warplanes have bombarded Hezbollah strongholds around the country, sparking an exodus of about 118,000 people,” the United Nations says.

During that time, more than 700 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry.

The security official pushed back on accusations that the Israeli strikes were killing civilians in large numbers, calling the campaign “very precise, very accurate”.

“It’s not like they publish the names of the dead. Many of them were Hezbollah,” he said, though he also accused Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields. “This phenomenon of putting ballistic missiles inside an apartment, it’s crazy. Cruise missiles in the living room. Every morning you say hello to your wife, hello to the cruise missile,” he added.

Published - September 27, 2024 09:45 pm IST