Reports say Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target and military is checking whether he was hit
Israel has launched its heaviest air attack on Beirut in almost a year of conflict with Hezbollah, levelling a number of buildings in the city’s southern suburbs in strikes that it said targeted the militant group’s central headquarters.
Six loud explosions were heard across the Lebanese capital late on Friday afternoon, and multiple large plumes of smoke were visible from as far away as Batroun, a city an hour’s drive away.
Israeli media reported that the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target and that the military was checking whether he had been hit or not. Sources close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was alive.
The strikes came shortly after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the UN general assembly that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue.
Targeting Nasrallah – even if he was not harmed – marks a staggering escalation on the Israeli side. He represents Iran’s most important regional asset and has long been seen as lynchpin in the so-called “axis of resistance”.
The explosions were so powerful that they rattled windows and shook houses in settlements 18 miles north of Beirut.
Nearby witnesses quoted by the Lebanese daily L’Orient-Le Jour described seeing substantial fissures opened in the ground. There was no immediate word on casualties.
