Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah killed by Israeli airstrike in Lebanon’s

Israel’s military said Saturday that it killed Hassan Nasrallah, the overall leader of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, in a Friday airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. The militant group confirmed Nasrallah’s death, saying its longtime leader “has joined his fellow martyrs.”

Two United States officials also confirmed Nasrallah’s death to CBS News. 

The afternoon strike, carried out by fighter jets, targeted the group’s “central headquarters,” which were “embedded under a residential building” in Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to the Israel Defense Forces. That region of the city has long been a stronghold of the U.S.-designated terror group. 

Nasrallah, who only gave speeches via video because of his fear of assassination, led the terrorist group for 30 years with fiery rhetoric. He crystallized its threats to destroy Israel and the U.S. presence in Lebanon, and his death now leaves a void of leadership in the strongest paramilitary force in the Middle East.

In his first public remarks since the killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday evening that Israel had no choice but to target Nasrallah.

“At the start of the week, I came to the conclusion that the intense blows the Israeli military struck Hezbollah with, these blows were not enough. Nasrallah’s assassination was an essential condition to achieving the goals we set,” Netanyahu said.

In a separate statement Saturday, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said Nasrallah’s killing demonstrated “anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel — we will know how to reach them.” 

The strike was the latest in a series of massive explosions targeting leaders of the militant group, which has been firing rockets and drones across Lebanon’s southern border into Israel for almost a year amid the country’s war with Hamas. An Israeli military official said Saturday that real-time intelligence on an operational opportunity allowed them to carry out the strike, which also killed Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders, according to the IDF. 

“The strike was conducted while Hezbollah’s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel,” the IDF said.

Israel has vowed to step up pressure on Hezbollah until it halts its attacks that have displaced tens of thousands of Israelis from communities near the Lebanese border. The recent fighting has also displaced more than 200,000 Lebanese in the past week, according to the United Nations.

The Israeli military said Saturday it was mobilizing three more battalions of reserve soldiers to serve across the country. It already sent two brigades to northern Israel to prepare for a possible ground invasion.

A U.S. official confirmed to CBS News on Saturday that Israel is continuing to send ground forces to its northern border and could launch a limited ground incursion into Lebanon in the next few days if a decision is made to do so.

When asked by reporters Saturday if an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon was inevitable, President Biden responded, “It’s time for a cease-fire.”    

Strikes destroy residential buildings 

The Friday strikes leveled multiple high-rise apartment buildings in the biggest blasts to hit the Lebanese capital since Hezbollah started firing on Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in response to Israel launching its war on the group’s Hamas allies in the Gaza Strip. 

At least 11 people were killed and 108 were wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The toll may rise, the ministry said, as people are believed to be buried under the rubble. The shock wave rattled windows and shook houses some 18 miles north of Beirut, and TV footage showed several craters — one with a car toppled into it — amid collapsed buildings in the densely populated, predominantly Shiite neighborhood.

A senior general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps was also reportedly killed in the strike, Iranian state media said Saturday. General Abbas Nilforoushan, 58, had been identified as the deputy commander for operations by the U.S. Treasury. The treasury sanctioned Nilforoushan amid the monthslong protests over the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest and death in custody, saying that he led an organization “directly in charge of protest suppression.”