Israel targets Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut airstrike

By Omar Tamo, Galit Altstein and Dana Khraiche

Israel targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with an airstrike on the group’s headquarters in Beirut, the heaviest attack on the Lebanese capital in almost two decades and a major escalation of a conflict that threatens to engulf the Middle East.

The Israel Defense Forces carried out a “precise strike” Friday on a command center of the Iran-backed militant group that was located under residential buildings, and is still assessing the results, spokesman Daniel Hagari said. Israel believes that Nasrallah was at the site of the attack, according to an Israeli official who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive information. The Hezbollah leader’s whereabouts couldn’t immediately be verified.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said six people were confirmed dead with the toll set to rise. State-run National News Agency said six buildings in the densely populated Haret Hreik neighborhood were leveled, and footage showed rescue workers pulling children from under the rubble. Hezbollah responded with rocket fire across northern Israel. Sirens sounded in the city of Safed, where the IDF said a house suffered a direct hit, and in Nahariya and Karmiel.

The attack came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, vowed to press ahead with the attack on Hezbollah in defiance of US-led efforts to secure a cease-fire. 

Israel has been bombarding southern Lebanon all week, after saying it was switching the focus of its military operations away from the still-ongoing campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah stepped up rocket attacks in response, firing at Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities. 

On Friday night, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement posted on X that the Israeli Air Force was carrying out strikes, on Hezbollah sites “in the area of Beirut.” 

“Among the targets struck are weapons production facilities, buildings used to store advanced weapons and key command centers of the terrorist organization,” the IDF said. 

Fears are growing that the conflict could spiral further into a regional war that could drag in the US and Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran. The Iranian embassy in Beirut called Friday’s airstrikes a “dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game,” and said Israel will be appropriately punished.

Washington had “no advance warning” of the latest Israeli attack, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was still gathering information about the Israeli strike, and warned that the past week’s escalation has left the region and the world confronting a “perilous moment.” 

The US has stepped up military and financial support for Israel since the Gaza conflict began nearly a year ago. The Biden administration has also expressed frustration at Netanyahu’s government for failing to conclude a cease-fire deal, and sought to prevent a wider war. 

Iran will likely want to hit back after Friday’s strike on Beirut. The extent of its retaliation may depend on whether the US and Israel are presenting a united front, and the countries need to work together to avoid a regional war, according to a senior Israeli official, who asked not to be identified. The official said that Israel would prefer not to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon, and believes that eliminating top Hezbollah leaders could swing the balance of the conflict.  

Israel’s airstrikes have killed more than 700 people since Sunday, including at least 50 children, according to Lebanese officials. Tens of thousands have fled the bombardment in the country’s south and northeast regions.

Hagari, in a televised address earlier Friday, hinted at potential targeting of planes arriving in Beirut, saying that Israel won’t allow the city’s civilian airport to become a hub for the transfer of weapons. 

Earlier Friday, in a defiant speech at the UN, Netanyahu did not mention the US-led cease-fire initiative and said Israel must “defeat” Hezbollah.

“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice and Israel has every right to remove this threat,” he said. His office later distributed a photo of him approving the Beirut attack, and said the premier would fly back from the US earlier than planned, breaking Israeli convention by traveling on the Jewish Sabbath.

Friday night’s events show that Israel isn’t seeking a truce, Lebanon Prime Minister Najib Mikati said. Hezbollah’s political wing carries plenty of clout in Lebanon and participates in government, though many in the country oppose the group’s ideology and accuse it of doing Iran’s bidding in the region.

Chief among Netanyahu’s stated goals in the campaign against Hezbollah is a return of residents of communities in the north of Israel, who have been displaced due to almost 12 months of cross-border rocket fire between the two sides. 

Hezbollah began firing missiles at Israel just after the start of the country’s war against Hamas in Gaza last October, in support of the Palestinian group. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated terrorist organizations by the US. 

Hezbollah has said it would continue fighting until there’s a cease-fire in Gaza, a prospect that looks distant with talks deadlocked for several months. 

At a UN Security Council meeting on Friday to discuss that conflict, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an urgent end to the fighting in Lebanon. “We need this cease-fire now,” he said. “We cannot afford endless negotiations, as we have on Gaza.”