Israel rained down missiles on Hezbollah’s main headquarters in Beirut Friday, in its most powerful attack carried out on the Lebanese capital yet which was targeting the terror group’s ferocious leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The strike is a major escalation that has raised fears of an all-out war between the heavily armed adversaries.
Nasrallah, however, survived the attack, sources told Reuters, with others telling the AFP that the leader is “fine.”
The explosions “leveled six buildings,” causing reverberations as far as 19 miles north of Beirut and sending massive clouds of orange and black smoke billowing into the skies.
At least two people were killed and 76 others injured, but Lebanese officials expect the death toll to soar as recovery efforts continue.
“They are residential buildings. They were filled with people. Whoever is in those buildings is now under the rubble,” Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, told the New York Times.
The strike came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN, vowing to continue Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah. The US did not have advanced warning of the strike and was not involved, Pentagon’s spokesperson, Sabrina Singh, told reporters.
The attack also came just one hour after thousands of people attended the funeral of a top Hezbollah commander who was killed the day before.
Under Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
He is responsible for launching hundreds of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a new weapon that is known for longer range and stronger power — to strike at north Israel in an overnight rocket barrage Sunday.
The Israeli army’s spokesman, Daniel Hagari, announced the attack in a televised address, calling it a “precise strike” aimed at Hezbollah headquarters, which he claimed were built “under residential buildings in Beirut in order to use them as human shields.”
The strikes were the largest against Beruit since the beginning of fighting nearly a year ago, and follow intense escalation over the past week — Israel struck the city four times, killing at least 700 people and wiping out at least three senior Hezbollah military commanders.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli airstrike killed a family of nine in a Lebanese border village as the IDF carried out dozens of strikes over the course of two hours in the south.
The scope of Israel’s operation remains unclear, but officials have said a ground invasion to push the militant group away from the border is a possibility. Israel has moved thousands of troops toward the border in preparation.
Netanyahu promised in a UN speech to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals along the Lebanon border,” fading hopes for a ceasefire that could head off an all-out regional war.
Friday’s intense escalation by the Jewish state recalls the Israeli airstrikes during the war it fought with Hezbollah in 2006.
Nasrallah, who has led the militant group since 1992, ignited the 34-day war by launching a rocket strike and ground invasion of the border between Lebanon and Israel, leaving multiple Israeli soldiers dead.
The terror group leader justified the bloodbath, claiming Israel failed to follow through on promises to conduct a prisoner swap and instead killed its Lebanese hostages.
https://nypost.com/2024/09/27/world-news/israel-says-it-performed-precise-strike-on-hezbollahs-headquarters-in-beirut/
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