Hassan Nasrallah, the revered and reviled longtime leader of Hezbollah, was killed Friday in an Israeli airstrike, the Israeli Defense Forces said.
Nasrallah, “the leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and one of its founders, was eliminated by the IDF,” the Israeli military said in a statement Saturday.
“Following precise intelligence,” the statement said, fighter jets “conducted a targeted strike on the Central Headquarters of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which was located underground embedded under a residential building in the area of Dahieh in Beirut.”
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death, saying it would continue its battle against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people.”
The decapitation attack on Israel’s strongest neighboring foe was a political earthquake for the region, threatening an armed response against Israeli and U.S. targets from Iran and its proxies in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
“It’s huge,” said Mohamad Bazzi, director of the Kevorkian Center for Near East Studies at New York University. “It’s a tremendous blow to Hezbollah. It’s a blow to Iran.”
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