The killing of the Iran-backed group's chief has intensified fears of all-out war in the Middle East.
US President Joe Biden welcomed "a measure of justice".
- Iran -
First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref warned Israel that Nasrallah's death would "bring about their destruction", Iran's ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.
The foreign ministry of Iran, which finances and arms Hezbollah, said Nasrallah's work will continue after his death. "His sacred goal will be realised in the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem), God willing," spokesman Nasser Kanani posted on X.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of public mourning.
- United States -
Biden said Nasrallah's death was "a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese civilians".
Washington supports Israel's right to defend itself against "Iranian-supported terrorist groups" and the "defence posture" of US forces in the region would be "further enhanced", Biden added in a statement.
Vice President Kamala Harris said Nasrallah was "a terrorist with American blood on his hands" and said she would "always support Israel's right to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis."
Leading Republicans in the House of Representatives also welcomed the end of a "reign of bloodshed, oppression, and terror" by "one of the most brutal terrorists on the planet".
- Russia -
Russia's foreign ministry said "we decisively condemn the latest political murder carried out by Israel" and urged it to "immediately cease military action" in Lebanon.
Israel would "bear full responsibility" for the "tragic" consequences the killing could bring to the region, the ministry added in a statement.
- Germany -
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told ARD television that the killing "threatens destabilisation for the whole of Lebanon", which "is in no way in Israel's security interest".
- Canada -
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described Nasrallah as "the leader of a terrorist organization that attacked and killed innocent civilians, causing immense suffering across the region".
But he called for more to be done to protect civilians in the conflict, adding: "We urge calm and restraint during this critical time."
- Britain -
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a post on X that he had spoken with the Lebanese premier.
"We agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the bloodshed. A diplomatic solution is the only way to restore security and stability for the Lebanese and Israeli people," he said.
- France -
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot demanded Israel "immediately stop its strikes in Lebanon" and said it was opposed to any ground operation in the country.
France also "calls on other actors, notably Hezbollah and Iran, to abstain from any action that could lead to additional destabilisation and regional conflagration", the foreign ministry said in a statement.
- United Nations -
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was "gravely concerned by the dramatic escalation of events in Beirut in the last 24 hours".
- Hamas -
Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel sparked the devastating war in Gaza that drew in fellow Iran-backed groups including Hezbollah, called Nasrallah's killing "a cowardly terrorist act".
"We condemn in the strongest terms this barbaric Zionist aggression and targeting of residential buildings," Hamas said in a statement.
- Palestinian Authority -
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas offered his "deep condolences" to Lebanon for the deaths of Nasrallah and civilians, who "fell as a result of the brutal Israeli aggression", according to a statement from his office.
- Huthis -
The Iran-backed Yemeni rebels, who have been firing on ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Hamas, said in a statement that Nasrallah's killing "will increase the flame of sacrifice, the heat of enthusiasm, the strength of resolve" against Israel, with their leader vowing Nasrallah's death "will not be in vain".
- Turkey -
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country maintains diplomatic relations with Israel but who has been a sharp critic of its offensive in Gaza, said on X that Lebanon was being subjected to a "genocide", without referring directly to Nasrallah.
- Cuba -
In a post on X, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the killing a "cowardly targeted assassination" that "seriously threatens regional and global peace and security, for which Israel bears full responsibility with the complicity of the United States."
- Argentina -
Argentine President Javier Milei reposted on X a message from a member of his council of economic advisers, David Epstein, who hailed the killing.
"Israel eliminated one of the greatest contemporary murderers. Responsible, among others, for the cowardly attacks in #ARG," it said. "Today the world is a little freer".
- Saudi Arabia -
Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told the UN that "this escalation will have... negative repercussions for the entire region".
"We call upon all parties to show wisdom and to show restraint in order to avoid a true war from breaking out in the region."
- Venezuela -
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro expressed solidarity with Nasrallah and Lebanon.
"They want to justify it, but to assassinate him, they attacked buildings, housing estates and killed hundreds of people. There's a word for this: crime."
Israel kills Hezbollah chief in Beirut strike
Beirut, Lebanon (AFP) Sept 28, 2024 -
Israel killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a huge air strike in Lebanon, dealing the movement a seismic blow that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday called a "turning point" for his country.
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's death after the Israeli military said he had been killed in an air strike Friday on the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Iran-backed group's main bastion.
Some Israelis celebrated his killing, while in Lebanon, his supporters' disbelief gave way to anguished mourning.
Around the region, leaders condemned the slaying while some Hezbollah allies vowed vengeance, fuelling fears of more violence in the Middle East after nearly a year of war in Gaza.
"Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah... has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years," Hezbollah said in a statement.
Netanyahu said Israel had "settled the score" for the killing of Israelis and citizens of other countries, including Americans.
As long as Nasrallah was alive, he added, he could have "quickly restored the capabilities we had eroded from Hezbollah" in a series of recent operations.
"So, I gave the order -- and Nasrallah is no longer with us," he said, adding that his country was on the cusp of "what appears to be a historic turning point" in the fight against its enemies.
Israel carried out more attacks on Lebanon Saturday, with one Lebanese security source saying a strike targeted a warehouse near Beirut airport.
The Israeli military has warned it will foil arms shipments through the airport.
Iran, which arms and finances Hezbollah, said a senior member of its Revolutionary Guards Corps had been killed in the same strike. A source close to Hezbollah said the group's top commander in south Lebanon, Ali Karake, had also died.
Women were seen weeping on the streets of Beirut as Hezbollah announced Nasrallah's death.
"I can't describe my shock at this announcement... we all started crying," said Maha Karit, one of the few people who agreed to be identified by name.
But some Israelis hailed his death.
"It should have been done a long time ago," said David Shalev in Israel's commercial hub Tel Aviv.
- 'Unjust bloodshed' -
Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah, enjoying cult status among his Shiite Muslim supporters, and was the only man in Lebanon with the power to wage war or make peace.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said: "His elimination makes the world a safer place."
In Tehran, posters of Nasrallah were put up bearing the slogan "Hezbollah is alive".
Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref denounced the "unjust bloodshed" and threatened that Nasrallah's killing will bring about Israel's "destruction".
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared public mourning, as did Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.
Yemen's Huthi rebels said they fired a missile at Israel's Ben Gurion airport on Saturday, hoping to hit it as Netanyahu returned from a trip to New York.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he was "gravely concerned by the dramatic escalation of events in Beirut".
US President Joe Biden -- whose government is Israel's top arms supplier -- said it was a "measure of justice", while Kamala Harris, who is running to replace him in the White House, called Nasrallah "a terrorist with American blood on his hands".
Israel has raised the prospect of a ground operation against Hezbollah, prompting widespread international concern.
Biden, asked if he thought such an operation was inevitable, said: "It's time for a ceasefire."
- Mass displacement -
Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border strikes on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas condemned Nasrallah's killing as a "cowardly terrorist act".
Earlier this month, Israel shifted the focus of its firepower from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds around the country has killed more than 700 people, according to health ministry figures.
Strikes on Saturday killed 33 people and wounded 195, the ministry said.
Most of the deaths in Lebanon came on Monday, the deadliest day of violence since the country's 1975-1990 civil war.
UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said "well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon" and more than 50,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.
- 'Very sophisticated' -
The Israeli military said it has hit more than 140 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since Friday night, and continued to pound south Beirut into Saturday, sending panicked families fleeing.
An AFP photographer said dozens of buildings have been destroyed.
The blasts that rocked south Beirut late Friday were the fiercest there since Israel and Hezbollah last went to war in 2006.
Hundreds of families spent the night outside.
"I didn't even pack any clothes, I never thought we would leave like this and suddenly find ourselves on the streets," south Beirut resident Rihab Naseef, 56, told AFP.
Middle East expert James Dorsey described Nasrallah's killing as "very sophisticated", adding it "demonstrates... just how deeply Israel has penetrated Hezbollah".
His death leaves Hezbollah under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said.
"Either we see an unprecedented reaction by Hezbollah... or this is total defeat," said Heiko Wimmen of the International Crisis Group think tank.
- Israel to 'remove this threat' -
Israel's military also announced strikes Saturday on the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon and on the south.
Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack on northern Israel, and later said it launched "a salvo of Fadi-3 rockets" towards the Ramat David airbase which it has targeted before.
Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting until the border with Lebanon is secured.
"Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safe," he said.
Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink.
Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,586 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
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