Hezbollah confirmed Saturday that its leader of more than three decades was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, threatened to levy “even more crushing” blows against Israel after the country confirmed it killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon’s capital the day before.
Hezbollah confirmed Saturday that its leader of more than three decades was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut. Nasrallah led Hezbollah in various clashes and armed conflicts against Israel and most recently, used rocket fire to push back against Israel’s multiple operations in Gaza following Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023.
The United States designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 1997. Hezbollah’s military wing is considered to be stronger than the Lebanese army. The group also has a political arm, which in certain regions is integrated in parts of everyday Lebanese life, including providing social services like health care.
Iran backs Hezbollah and Hamas, and has no diplomatic ties with Israel, which Iranian officials often refer to not by name but as “the Zionist regime.”
Iranian state media reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan was also killed in the Israeli strikes. According to Reuters, Khamenei has been transferred to a secure location within the country.
On Saturday evening, Khamenei posted several times to his English X, formerly Twitter, account in which he said Nasrallah “achieved martyrdom”, and offered a “path and a school of thought.”
In one post, he warned, “By the grace and power of God, the blows struck by the Resistance Front on the worn-out, deteriorating body of the Zionist regime will become even more crushing.”
In a similar vein, Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, warned that this “unjust bloodshed” will “bring about their [Israel’s] destruction”, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.
