Sept. 28 (UPI) — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other Hezbollah commanders died in a targeted aerial strike on Hezbollah’s command center in Beirut on Friday.
“Hassan Nasrallah … was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in a precise strike in Beirut last night while he was in Hezbollah’s Central Headquarters commanding more imminent against the people of Israel,” IDF spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari said during a press briefing Saturday.
Hezbollah leaders confirmed Nasrallah’s death and those of several others after the IDF air strikes destroyed several high-rise apartment buildings in Beirut.
The attacks killed at least six and injured 91, Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported.
Hagari said Hezbollah was planning a major incursion into northern Israel, which Hezbollah has targeted with rocket and drone attacks since Oct. 8.
Hagari said Hezbollah was planning an attack of Israel’s civilian population that would have been much larger and more destructive than the Oct. 7 attack carried out by Hamas.
Hezbollah’s southern front commander Ali Karki and other Hezbollah commanders who were operating from a command center that was placed under six apartment buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiya also died in the air strikes.
The IDF said it deliberately chose to strike the buildings during the afternoon to minimize civilian casualties and launched additional air strikes to destroy stores of Hezbollah weapons.
The additional attacks caused an unreported number of casualties, according to the Lebanon Health Ministry.
The strikes targeting the Hezbollah commander center and Nasrallah also are likely to have higher casualty figures after the rubble is removed and more bodies are uncovered,
Also killed was Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan, who the United States said was the deputy commander for IRGC operations and led “protest suppression” in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini after she had been arrested and killed while in custody in Iran.
Although the Hezbollah central command center was embedded in a residential area, Hagari said the center was a legitimate military target 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,” Hagari said. “While Hezbollah seeks to maximize civilian harm, Israel seeks to minimize it.”
“Our war is not with the Lebanese people,” Hagari added. “Our war is with Hezbollah.”
He said Hezbollah “chose to join the war that Hamas started. There are consequences for that decision.”
Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi warned that “this is not the end of our toolbox” after Nasrallah died.
“It should be very clear: there are further tools going forward,” he said. “And the message is clear: anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel, we will know how to reach them, in the north, in the south, and also farther away,” Halevi said in a video released Saturday.
He added that Israel’s military is prepared “along all our fronts.”
In Tel Aviv, the Israeli government will not allow gatherings of more than 1,000 people as well as the nearby city of Netanya and several other areas of Israel, according to guidelines published on Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed back in Israel, his office said on Saturday, returning from the United States a day earlier than originally planned. Netanyahu made a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
In Gaza, Israeli attacks killed at least six Palestinians and injured others overnight, according to statements from the Palestinian Civil Defense in the strip.
A missile launched toward Israel from Yemen was intercepted before reaching the country, IDF said Saturday.
