Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in Israeli airstrike – National

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah ******* in ******** airstrike – National

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group confirmed on Saturday that its leader and one of its founders, Hassan Nasrallah, was ******* in an ******** airstrike in Beirut the previous day.

A statement Saturday said Nasrallah “has joined his fellow martyrs.” Hezbollah vowed to “continue the holy war against the ****** and in support of Palestine.”

Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, is by far the most powerful target to be ******* by ******* in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah. The ******** military said it carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leadership met at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people were ******* and 91 injured in the Beirut strikes Friday, which levelled six apartment buildings. Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders were also ******* in the *******, the ******** military said.

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Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesperson, said the airstrike was based on years of tracking Nasrallah along with “real time information” that made it viable. He said Nasrallah’s ****** had been confirmed through various types of intelligence, but declined to elaborate.

Shoshani declined to say what munitions were used in the strike or provide an estimate on civilian deaths in the strike, only saying that ******* takes measures to avoid civilians whenever possible and clears strikes ahead of time with intelligence and legal experts.

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2:49
Defiant Netanyahu vows to continue attacks on Lebanon, Gaza

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******* vows to keep up attacks on Hezbollah

*******’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Saturday that the elimination of Nasrallah was “not the end of our toolbox,” indicating that more strikes were planned. He said that the strike targeting Hezbollah leadership was the result of a long ******* of preparation.

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It was not immediately clear what effect the strike would have on Hezbollah or fighting between the sides that has dragged on for nearly a year. ******* 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 ******* Nations.

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The military said it was mobilizing additional reserve soldiers as 

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, activating three battalions of reserve soldiers to serve across the country. The call comes after it sent two brigades to northern ******* earlier in the week to train for a possible ground invasion.

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Shoshani, the army spokesperson, said that ******* has inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah’s capabilities over the past week by targeting a combination of immediate threats and strategic weapons, such as larger, guided missiles. But he said much of Hezbollah’s arsenal still ******** intact and that ******* would continue to target the group.

“This isn’t a threat that has gone away,” he said.

He said it is “safe to assume” that Hezbollah will retaliate and that ******* is on “high readiness.” But he said ******* hopes the ***** to Hezbollah will change the course of the war.

“We hope this will change Hezbollah’s actions,” he said. “We have been looking for solutions, looking for a change in reality that will bring our civilians home,” referring to the approximately 60,000 Israelis who have been evacuated from their homes along the Lebanese border for almost a year. Earlier this month, *******’s government said 

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 to allow residents to return to their homes is an official war goal.

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Iran calls for support for Hezbollah

Iranian state television read the announcement from Hezbollah confirming Nasrallah’s ****** live, but there was no other immediate comment. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a Saturday message said “the resistance movement, heading by Hezbollah, will decide the fate of the region,” in a statement read on state TV.

“All regional resistance forces are to stand by and support Hezbollah,” he said. He added that Hezbollah was strong enough to withstand ******** attacks. Iran is the main supporter of Lebanese Hezbollah and other militant groups in the region.

Also on Saturday, Iran’s influential parliamentary committee of national security demanded a “strong” response to ******* following a meeting of the committee. State TV also said people staged anti-******** rallies in support of Hezbollah in major cities and town across the country.

A year of hostilities between ******* and Hezbollah

Hezbollah started ******* rockets on ******* in support of Gaza on Oct. 8, a day after ****** militants launched an unprecedented ******* on *******, ******** some 1,200 people and abducting another 250. Since then, the two sides have been engaged in cross-border strikes that have gradually escalated and displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border.

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Hostilities escalated dramatically last week when thousands of explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated, ******** dozens of people and leaving thousands, including many civilians, with severe injuries to the eyes, face and limbs. ******* is widely believed to be behind the *******. ******* has also ******* several top Hezbollah commanders in Beirut in addition to the ******* that ******* Nasrallah.

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1:51
*******-Hezbollah: Expert warns threshold for war changing after Lebanon pager explosions

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A window of opportunity for *******, Lebanon

Nasrallah’s ****** is a “historical moment,” said Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based think tank Institute for National Security Studies and former intelligence analyst for the ******** military and prime minister’s office. “This doesn’t mean that Hezbollah is destroyed, because Hezbollah is made up tens of thousands of people,” she said.

Mizrahi noted that Nasrallah was sometimes a “voice of reason,” interested in engaging ******* in a war of attrition and holding the militant group back from using the full force of their formidable arsenal against *******. Nasrallah’s ****** could prompt some less senior members of Hezbollah to unleash much stronger weapons than have been used in the nearly yearlong exchange of hostilities between Hezbollah and Lebanon, she said. The biggest question mark right now, though, is how Iran will respond, said Mizrahi.

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Mizrahi added that Nasrallah’s ****** could provide a window of opportunity, while the organization is significantly weakened, for Lebanon to dilute Hezbollah’s far-reaching influence, especially in the south, that threatens to drag Lebanon into a full-scale war with *******.

Continuing strikes on both sides of the border

On Saturday morning, the ******** military carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, including targeting a storage facility for anti-ship missiles in Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. ******* said the missiles were stored underground beneath civilian apartment buildings. Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles across northern and central ******* and deep into the *******-occupied West Bank, damaging some buildings in the northern town of Safed.

In Beirut’s southern suburbs, smoke rose and the streets were empty after the area was pummelled overnight by heavy ******** airstrikes. Shelters set up in the city centre for displaced people were overflowing. Many families slept in public squares and beaches or in their cars. On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.

At least 720 people have been ******* in Lebanon over the past week from ******** airstrikes, according to the Health Ministry.

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