The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said this Friday that it carried out an attack on the headquarters of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah in Beirut.
At least six people were killed and some 91 were injured, according to Lebanese authorities.
A US official told BBC partner CBS that the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallahwas the target of the attack.
However, it is not yet known if he was in the damaged buildings, located in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement that they do not yet know the situation of Nasrallah.
He assured that the attack on the Hezbollah headquarters had been “very precise” and that they are verifying the results of the operation.
In New York, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said that a “gathering of bad people” was taking place at the site of the airstrikes in Beirut.
The diplomat did not confirm whether Nasrallah was at the site or if he was the target of the attacks, calling him a “terrorist.”
Hezbollah sources have told several media outlets that Nasrallah is safe and well. However, that organization has not yet issued any official communication.
Hezbollah is an Islamist armed group that is part of the so-called “axis of resistance,” made up of several organizations allied with Iran in the Middle East that have been attacking Israel from different fronts.
These organizations, among which is the Palestinian group Hamasreceive weapons, training and money from Tehran.
The Iranian Embassy in Beirut condemned Friday’s attack and said it was a “dangerous, game-changing escalation.”
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian later called the attack a war crime.
The attack targeted a complex of six buildings, of which four were destroyed, according to Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad.
The official warned that the number of people hospitalized is much lower than those who are probably under the rubble.
“These are residential buildings. They were full of people. Whoever was in those buildings is now under the rubble,” Abiad said in an interview according to The New York Times.
Late in the evening, the IDF announced that it was carrying out “precise strikes” on buildings in southern Lebanon, where it claims Hezbollah has weapons caches. The Lebanese militia issued a statement denying that it had weapons in those facilities.
“Concerns grow about a broader war in the Middle East”
Analysis by Jeremy Bowen, BBC international editor from Jerusalem
Big decisions are coming.
Firstly, from the point of view of Hezbollah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was presumably the target today and who has lost almost all of his top lieutenants.
You will have to decide what to do with your organization’s remaining arsenal. Will they use it against Israel in the way many Israelis fear?
And the Israelis have to decide what happens next. They have already talked about a ground operation against Lebanon and, although they have not yet mobilized all the reserves they might need, it is absolutely on their agenda.
Therefore, I believe that Western diplomats who are among Israel’s allies and who hope to try to calm things down will now look at the events with much dismay and also with a sense of helplessness.
And all those concerns about the possibility of this war spreading throughout the Middle East will be present in foreign ministries, not only here, but around the world. Israel believes it has the upper hand and wants to take advantage of that advantage.
Who is Hassan Nasrallah?
Hassan Nasrallah is a character with many followers and enemies. For this reason, for years he has avoided making public appearances for fear of being assassinated by Israel.
This Shiite cleric, leader of Hezbollah, has a special relationship with both the Islamic Republic of Iran and its leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Nasrallah played a fundamental role in the historic turn that this militia took to enter politics and gain power in the structure of the Lebanese government,
At the age of 15 he became a member of the most important Lebanese Shiite political-military organization of that time: the Amal Movement.
He later emigrated to Iraq, where he only stayed two years before returning to Lebanon and joining the fight in the civil war.
A year later the revolution began in Iran, an event that profoundly changed the relationship between the Shiites of Lebanon and Iran.
In 1985, when Hezbollah officially announced its creation, 22-year-old Nasrallah joined the group.
In the mid-80s, he decided to move to Iran to continue his religious studies. There he learned Persian and forged close friendships with the Iranian political-military elites.
In 1992 he assumed the leadership of Hezbollah and, after the end of the civil war, decided to work so that the political branch of the group became a serious player in the country, along with its military branch.
As a result of this strategy, the group managed to win eight seats in the Lebanese Parliament.
But Hezbollah continued to be accused of planning and executing terrorist operations.
Iran’s financial support for Hezbollah also enabled Nasrallah to provide welfare and social services to many Lebanese Shiites by forming a complex network of schools, hospitals, and charitable associations.
This policy, which continues to this day, became one of the important aspects of the political-social movement of the Shiites in Lebanon.
Crossfire at the border
Israel’s attack this Friday in Beirut occurs at a time when diplomatic efforts were being made to achieve a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The proposal, however, did not seem to have much acceptance.
A few hours before the attack, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahugave a speech before the UN General Assembly in which he said that his country wants peace, but assured that it now had no choice but to fight “savage enemies” who seek its annihilation.
The interim prime minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikatiwho is in New York to participate in the UN General Assembly, said that these latest attacks on Beirut show that Israel “does not care” about efforts to achieve a ceasefire, as reported by Reuters.
For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Israel’s objective in Lebanon is “important and legitimate.”
“Israel has the right to defend itself from terrorism,” he noted, while emphasizing that “the way it does so is important.”
This Friday, after the attacks in Beirut, alarms sounded in northern Israel due to the launch of rockets by Hezbollah against the Israeli cities of Nahariya and Safed.
Hezbollah said it attacked Safed with rockets “in defense of Lebanon and its people, and in response to the brutal Israeli violation of cities, towns and civilians.”
According to the IDF, Hezbollah launched 65 missiles into Israeli territory, some of which were intercepted.
Israeli police said there have been no reports of casualties, but added that there was “serious property damage” in the city.
The Israeli forces, for their part, confirmed the execution of another series of attacks in Lebanon, this time targeting Hezbollah shuttles and weapons storage sites.
The fighter jets struck “deep in Lebanon and southern Lebanon,” according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), hitting Hezbollah targets, including shuttles that were “aimed at Israeli civilians.”
Since the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched the surprise and deadly attack against Israel on October 7, thus starting the war in Gaza, the Lebanese border has become a kind of second front, in which the Palestinian army Israel has been exchanging fire with Hezbollah.
The Lebanese militia has been sending rockets and drones against Israel. Due to these actions, some 60,000 Israelis living in towns in the north of the country, near the border with Lebanon, have been living outside their residences for months, which they had to evacuate.
For its part, the Israeli air force has carried out frequent raids against the group’s positions and members. There have been thousands of cross-border attacks.
Hezbollah has justified its actions as a way to support Hamas and in a statement published on Tuesday reiterated its “support and backing for the brave Palestinian resistance.”
- What is Hezbollah, Israel’s enemy in Lebanon (and how powerful it is)
- How much support Hezbollah really has in Lebanon
- “It is a declaration of war”: the Hezbollah leader’s response to the wave of explosions in Lebanon as Israel launches an offensive against the country