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An image of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah is seen during the funeral of Hezbollah member Ali Mohamed Chalbi in Kfar Melki, Lebanon, last week.Credit: Aziz Taher/ REUTERS
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An Israeli attack in Beirut, Saturday morning.Credit: Hussein Malla/AP
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An armored vehicle drives as damaged buildings are seen in the background in the Gaza Strip, last week.Credit: Amir Cohen/ REUTERS
Hezbollah confirms its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Friday’s Israeli strike in Beirut ■ Defense chief Gallant holds situation assessment with IDF chief, Mossad head ■ Two buildings and vehicles damaged from shrapnel in northern Israel ■ IDF says attacked 140 Hezbollah targets since Friday night ■ IDF: Calling up three reserve battalions
Hezbollah confirms its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Friday’s Israeli strike in Beirut ■ Defense chief Gallant holds situation assessment with IDF chief, Mossad head ■ Two buildings and vehicles damaged from shrapnel in northern Israel ■ IDF says attacked 140 Hezbollah targets since Friday night ■ IDF: Calling up three reserve battalions
IDF Chief of Staff: ‘We are determined to continue to destroy Hezbollah’
Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said that the IDF is “determined to continue to destroy the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”
Speaking after a situation assessment in the IDF’s Northern Command, Halevi remarked that the army “has other tasks in all arenas – destroying terrorist organizations and their capabilities, retrieving the hostages, and having residents of the north and south return [to their homes].”
Iran Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Abbas Nilforushan killed in Israeli attacks in Beirut, Iranian media reports
Iran announced Saturday that a prominent general in its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard sanctioned by the U.S. died in an airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Abbas Nilforushan, 58, was killed Friday in Lebanon, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The U.S. Treasury had identified Nilforushan as the deputy commander for operations in the Guard. It sanctioned him in 2022 and said he had led an organization “directly in charge of protest suppression, which has played a critical role in arresting protest leaders during previous protests.” Those sanctions came amid the monthslong protests over the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest for allegedly not wearing her headscarf, or hijab, to the liking of police.
Nilforushan also served in Syria backing President Bashar Assad in his country’s decades-long war that grew out of the 2011 Arab Spring that swept the wider Middle East. He served in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s like many of his colleagues.
In 2020, Iranian state television called him “comrade” of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of its expeditionary Quds Force who was killed in 2020 U.S. drone attack in Baghdad. In 2021, Nilforushan told state TV that Israel was not in a capacity to pose a threat against Iran over what he described as Israel’s weakness.
Defense Minister Gallant: Nasrallah killing ‘one of the most important assassinations in Israel’s history’
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Friday’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is “one of the most important assassinations in the history of the State of Israel.”
“This action closed a long-standing reckoning with the mass murderer Nasrallah, whose hands are covered with the blood of thousands of civilians and soldiers,” he added.
“This assassination joins the sequence of recent actions echoing all over the Middle East, and sends a clear message to those who acted against us and to those who are thinking of doing so now – whoever starts a war against the State of Israel and tries to harm its citizens, will pay a very heavy price.”
IDF officials said that the operation “could change certain things in the Middle East,” and that the army was preparing for Hezbollah’s reaction, as well as the possibility that there would be reactions in other arenas.
They added that the operation was conducted from the Israeli Air Force command room, with Defense Minister Gallant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi also present, and that the army had accurate intelligence of Nasrallah’s whereabouts. “We were constantly trying to make sure that Nasrallah did not receive information that we were going to attack and leave the location,” they said.
Commander of the Hatzerin Airbase, Amichai Levin, said that he only knew the identity of the operation’s target “a few days before [the operation], but the rest of the force did not know until a few hours before it was carried out.”
IDF officials stated that the army would prevent the Beirut civilian airport from being used for military purposes or for the transfer of weaponry. This message was conveyed to Lebanon via international intermediaries. They also noted that the army is closely monitoring Hezbollah’s efforts to rebuild its top command and is focusing “on Iran and its proxies in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.”
NYT: Israel tracked Nasrallah for months prior to assassination, Israeli officials say
Israel tracked Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah for months before his assassination and decided to strike because it believed there was only a short window before Nasrallah disappeared to a different location, The New York Times reported on Friday citing three Israeli officials.
According to The Times’ report, two of the officials said that more than 80 bombs were dropped over several minutes to kill Nasrallah, but did not specify the weight or make of the bombs.
Hezbollah operatives found and identified Nasrallah’s body early Saturday, the report added, as well as that of top Hezbollah military commander Ali Karaki, according to the Israeli officials.
They added that Hashem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah and a “key player in the movement’s political and social work,” was one of the few senior Hezbollah leaders who wasn’t present at the site of the strike, and that he has long been considered a potential successor to Nasrallah as Hezbollah’s new secretary-general.
European Union recommends European airlines refrain from entering Israeli and Lebanese airspace until October 31
The European Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency has recommended that European airlines “not operate within the airspaces of Lebanon and Israel at all flight levels.”
The statement added that the recommendation is valid until October 31, and “can be reviewed earlier and adapted or withdrawn subject to the revised assessment.”
IDF prohibits gatherings of over 1,000 people in ‘various locations’ in central Israel
IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced that over the next few hours, gatherings of over 1,000 people would be prohibited in “various locations in central Israel.”
Hezbollah confirms that leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in Beirut strike
Hezbollah confirmed that Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was killed on Friday in an IDF attack in Beirut.
A statement by the organization said Nasrallah, “the master of resistance,” has “moved alongside his Lord as a great martyr,” Lebanese news site Orient Today reported.
“He has joined the caravan of the martyrs of Karbala” and “his companions, the immortal martyrs whom he led for thirty years, guiding them from victory to victory,” the organization was reported to have said, and recalled the “liberation of Lebanon in 2000” and the “victory of 2006.”
“The leadership of Hezbollah commits to continuing its jihad against the enemy, supporting Gaza and Palestine, and defending Lebanon,” the statement added.