A woman holds up an images of Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during a rally at a stadium in Beirut's southern suburb on November 3, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. - Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on November 3, will break weeks of silence since war broke out between Hamas and Israel, in a speech that could impact the region as the Gaza conflict rages. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP)
A woman holds up an images of Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during a rally at a stadium in Beirut's southern suburb on November 3, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. - Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on November 3, will break weeks of silence since war broke out between Hamas and Israel, in a speech that could impact the region as the Gaza conflict rages. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP)
An image grab from Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV taken on January 5, 2024, shows the head of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah delivering a televised speech. – The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah warned Israel on January 5 that the group will swiftly respond “on the battle field” to the killing of Hamas’s deputy chief Saleh al-Aruri in a Beirut suburb they control. (Photo by Al-Manar / AFP)
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group on Saturday confirmed its leader Hassan Nasrallah had been killed, after Israel said it had “eliminated” him in a strike on south Beirut a day earlier.
“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
The statement confirmed he was killed with other group members “following the treacherous Zionist strike on the southern suburbs” of Beirut.
In central Beirut, AFP journalists heard a passerby screaming, “Oh my God”, while women wept in the streets right after Hezbollah announced the news.
Israeli jets pounded Beirut’s south and its outskirts throughout the night into Saturday in the most intense attacks on the Hezbollah stronghold since the group and Israel last went to war in 2006.
