Israel-Lebanon latest: Israeli strikes continue as Iran vows revenge after Hezbollah leader Nasrallah’s death
UK government asks Britons in Lebanon to ‘leave now’ amid concerns over escalating situation in Middle East
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Israel’s bombardment continued in Lebanon after the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike at the militants’ headquarters in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.
At least six people were killed in the south of Lebanon and nine others in the Beqaa Valley in the northeast, local media reports said.
The Israeli military claimed to have killed Nabil Kaouk – a senior Hezbollah figure who led the group’s forces in southern Lebanon during Israel’s 18-year occupation – and said it had struck key weapon manufacturing sites, including one used to produce missile and rocket launchers.
The UK government has asked Britons in Lebanon to “leave now” amid concerns over the escalating situation in the Middle East following.
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said Nasrallah’s death “will not go unavenged” as he remembered the Hezbollah leader as the “flag-bearer of resistance” in the region.
A total of 1,030 people, including 156 women and 87 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon in less than two weeks, the country’s health minister said.
Israel kills Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in strike marking major escalation in conflict
The killing of Hezbollah’s leader will make Israel no safer
‘We have lost everything’: Britons fleeing Lebanon say family was wiped out by airstrike
Who was Hassan Nasrallah? Hezbollah leader of Lebanese militant group killed in Israeli strike
Search for victims goes on as more strikes expected
Rescue workers in Beirut are still looking for victims under the rubble and more strikes are expected across southern Lebanon overnight, writes Cosette Moljin in the city.
At least six buildings were destroyed in Friday night’s airstrike that killed Hassan Nasrallah.
The site is close to Rasoul al-Aazam Hospital, near the entrance of the Palestinian refugee camp Bourj el-Barajneh, and along a main road that leads from the centre of Beirut to the Beirut national airport.
Killing of Hezbollah chief ‘a measure of justice’, says Biden
US president Joe Biden has said the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was “a measure of justice” for his many victims.
Mr Biden said: “Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror.
“His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.
“The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023.
“Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a “northern front” against Israel.”
The president said the US fully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups, adding: “Just yesterday, I directed my Secretary of Defense to further enhance the defense posture of US military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.
“Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means.
“In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the UN Security Council for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon.
“It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.”
Airstrikes killed five relatives, says British woman
A British woman returning to the UK from Lebanon said Israeli airstrikes had killed five members of her family, including a young engineer due to be married in 10 days’ time.
Sana Chamseddin, who clutched her son in her arms in Heathrow Airport, spoke of her guilt at escaping besieged Lebanon and leaving behind loved ones.
Her uncle, his wife and his three daughters, all in their twenties, were killed when their home in the Lebanese city of Tyre was bombed, she told the PA news agency.
Two of the daughters were doctors and one was an engineer who was due to be married in 10 days, said Mrs Chamseddin.
She and her husband, both British citizens, returned to London with their sons, two-month-old Zien and one-year-old Jawad.
She broke down in tears as she said: “On Monday morning we wake up as a big bomb (hit) just beside our house, and we saw on the news that they said another round (of attacks) will start in one hour, so we didn’t take it seriously because we don’t fight - we are normal civilians.
“I was talking with my uncle over WhatsApp, he told me that it’s okay, it’s not going to bomb him, but we lost the connection when they bombed around us.
“When we arrived after 10 hours on the road we found out that he didn’t make it - me and my husband feel very guilty to come here (to England) and (leave) our family in unsafe places.”
Smoke rises from Beirut suburbs after Israeli attacks
Recap:
Israel-Hamas war latest: Smoke rises from Beirut’s southern suburbs after a night of Israeli attacks
Israel's attacks on Hezbollah targets pounded areas around Lebanon's capital overnight
Missile intercepted over Israel as air raid sirens sound
Air raid sirens have sounded across central Israel, including at Tel Aviv international airport, shortly after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed from a trip to the US.
The Israeli military said a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted shortly after the sirens were heard. There were no reports of injuries.
It was not immediately known whether the missile strike was aimed at Mr Netanyahu’s flight.
Iran Guard ‘was in charge of protest suppression'
The killing of a prominent general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard further ratchets up pressure on Tehran to respond to Israel’s strikes on Lebanon, although the country has signalled in recent months that it wants to negotiate with the West over sanctions crushing its economy.
General Abbas Nilforushan , 58, was killed yesterday in the strike that killed Hassan Nasrallah, the state-owned Tehran Times reported.
The US Treasury had identified Nilforushan as the deputy commander for operations in the Guard. It sanctioned him in 2022 and said he had led an organisation “directly in charge of protest suppression”.
Those sanctions came amid the months-long protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest for allegedly not wearing her headscarf or hijab.
Nilforushan also served in Syria, backing President Bashar Assad in his country’s decades-long war that grew out of the 2011 Arab Spring. Like many of his colleagues, he began his military career in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
In 2020, Iranian state television called him a “comrade” of Gen Qassem Soleimani, the head of its expeditionary Quds Force who was killed in a US drone attack in Baghdad that year.
More than 1,600 people killed in a year, Lebanon says
Lebanon’s health ministry says the death toll in its country since the day after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October last year is 1,640, with 8,408 people wounded.
In the past 12 days, 1,030 have been killed, including 56 women and 87 children, it said, with 6,352 people wounded.
Israel brands Nasrallah murderer of innocent civilians
The head of the Israel Defence Forces has said Hassan Nasrallah “indiscriminately murdered Israeli civilians and aimed to end this war with the destruction of the State of Israel”.
Hezbollah has “murdered innocent people worldwide, hiding weapons under the homes of families, women and children and turning them into human shields”, said Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi.
“The IDF is at peak readiness, both in defense and offense, across all fronts, and is prepared for what comes next,” he said.
“We have more missions ahead on all fronts—destroying terrorist organisations and their capabilities, returning our hostages—the mission is constantly before our eyes! As well as the safe return of the residents in the north and south to their homes.”
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut where Nasrallah was killed was a legitimate military target under international law.
Israel had issued stricter guidelines to civilians by limiting the size of gatherings in areas of central Israel to 1,000 people, he added.
He said: “Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of an evil terrorist organisation; the senior terrorists eliminated with him, and the central headquarters they were in, were legitimate military targets under international law. Nasrallah intentionally built Hezbollah’s central headquarters under residential buildings in Dahiya, Beirut, because Hezbollah intentionally uses Lebanese civilians as human shields. While Hezbollah seeks to maximize civilian harm, Israel seeks to minimize it.”
Recap: Nasrallah and his role in Middle East fighting
Nasrallah’s significance and events that led to his death:
Hassan Nasrallah, longtime leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, is killed by his archenemy Israel
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who transformed the Lebanese militant group into a potent paramilitary and political force in the Middle East was killed in an Israeli airstrike
Analysis: Does Hezbollah chief’s death bring Israeli victory closer?
Israel has has yet to show it has a strategy to persuade its enemies to accept defeat, writes Mark Almond:
Has the death of Hezbollah’s leader brought Israel any closer to victory?
Killing Hassan Nasrallah is unlikely to do more than perpetuate the cycle of violence in the Middle East, writes Mark Almond
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