World reacts to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Al Jazeera
Lebanese group pledges to continue its resistance to Israeli aggression as regional powers condemn Nasrallah’s killing.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah has confirmed the death of Hassan Nasrallah, its longtime leader, in an air strike on the group’s underground headquarters near the capital, Beirut.
Hours after Israel claimed killing the 64-year-old Nasrallah, the Iran-backed Hezbollah on Saturday said its leader “has joined his fellow martyrs” and pledged it would “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine” amid fears that a regional war is now inevitable.
Israel carried out a large strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday evening, which it said targeted the Hezbollah leader, flattening at least six residential buildings.
Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, is by far the most powerful target to be killed by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah. According to the United Nations, more than 50,000 people have fled Lebanon for Syria, as Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 700 people since Monday.
Israeli jets pounded south Beirut 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.
