Hezbollah confirmed Saturday that the Lebanese militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a deadly strike in Beirut and pledged that it will continue its fight against Israel.
Israel claimed early Saturday that a strike on Hezbollah’s headquarters killed Nasrallah, who has led the group since 1992, a development that is likely to escalate an already spiraling conflict in the Middle East.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in messages posted to social media that Nasrallah was killed in the airstrikes on the Dahieh suburb of the Lebanese capitol, which targeted a command center used by Hezbollah.
“Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world,” the IDF said in a brief statement on social platform X.
Speculation had mounted since the strike that Nasrallah was killed after it was reported he was a target of the attack.
Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, was a founding member of the group formed in 1982, and he helped form the militant group into the lethal force it is today, including with the establishment of the elite special forces unit the Radwan Force.
Nasrallah’s death is a major blow to the organization, especially after Israel has chopped off most of the command chain, including the top military chief, Fuad Shukr, in a July strike.
Still, Hezbollah is likely to continue its attacks against Israel, and morph into a restructured organization with the backing of its primary sponsor, Iran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei said in a speech Saturday shared by the Lebanese state-run National News Agency that Israel did not “cause any significant harm to the strong structure of the Lebanese Hezbollah.”
“All resistance forces in the region stand beside Hezbollah and support it,” Khamenei said, calling for all Islamic fighters to stand with the Lebanese militant group.
Iran on Saturday called for a special meeting of the intergovernmental organization, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which is dominated by Muslim-majority countries, to address the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute said Hezbollah was Iran’s “strategically significant asset and main deterrent against Israel.”
“This has been severely degraded now and how Iran chooses to respond will be highly consequential as the conflict evolves,” he said in an email statement.
“Hezbollah will not vanish overnight as a significant actor inside Lebanon and the region despite the pummelling it has endured,” he added. “The militant group may believe it is no longer restrained given the targeting of its senior command structure, and that it must act decisively otherwise it may not survive.”
The Israeli strike Friday comes after intense escalation in the 11-month conflict with Hezbollah, which began firing over the border at Israel in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas a day after the war in Gaza broke out on Oct. 7.
Israel has pounded Hezbollah with airstrikes, killing more than 500 people in a Monday attack and earlier this month detonating pagers and walkie-talkies used by the groups’ fighters, which killed at least 37 people in Lebanon and injured thousands.
Israel has set a war goal of returning its some 60,000 residents displaced from the border with Lebanon.
The escalation has deeply concerned the U.S., which has been pushing for months for a diplomatic deal that could resolve the crisis and prevent an all-out war. The U.S. and France led a proposal this week for a 21-day truce that would also lead to negotiations for a permanent peace, but Israel rejected it.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that it was vital for Israel to reach a diplomatic solution in Lebanon.
“The question is what is the best way to achieve its objectives, to reach enduring security,” he said at a press conference Friday. “And in this instance, with regard to Lebanon, what’s the best way to achieve the stated objective of creating an environment in northern Israel that gives people confidence to return to their homes? As I said, we believe the diplomatic course is the best one.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned in a Friday interview with CNN that a Lebanon war could be much worse with “casualties that equal or exceed what we have seen in Gaza.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep fighting against Hezbollah in a Friday speech before the United Nations General Assembly in New York, just hours before his military conducted the operation against Hezbollah, reportedly while high-level officials were gathering in Beirut.
Former Israeli Intelligence official and regional analyst Avi Melamed said Israel dealt “a significant blow to Hezbollah’s dominance in Lebanon.”
“This incident offers the Lebanese—previously held hostage by Hezbollah—the chance to liberate themselves from Iranian influence, while also likely compelling Iran to reevaluate its plans for regional control,” he said in an email.