ISRAELI forces are on “high alert” for escalation after assassinating Hezbollah’s terror chief in a massive blitz on Beirut.
Hezbollah confirmed Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Iran-backed terror group’s HQ in Lebanon on Friday.
Giant clouds of smoke seen rising from Beirut’s southern suburb of DahiyehEPA
An apartment block was left up in smoke as Israeli airstrikes continued todayAP
Hezbollah confirmed Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Israel’s deadly blitz of Lebanon on FridayAP
Much of Beirut has been reduced to rubble following Friday’s attacksGetty
Pinpoint Israeli strikes ripped through the 64-year-old terror chief’s underground command post in Beirut – eliminating the terror group’s Secretary-General after a 32-year reign.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.”
Hezbollah vowed to continue its battle against Israel after the assassination of its leader.
The death of Nasrallah, considered by many to be the single most powerful individual in Lebanon, is a pivotal moment for Israel – and has sparked fears of wider escalation.
Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, is also believed to have been killed alongside Nasrallah in the strikes on Friday.
Israel also claims to have killed several other Hezbollah chiefs including Muhammad Ali Ismail, the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in southern Lebanon, in the blasts.
His deputy and “other senior officials” were also taken out.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is believed to have personally signed off the attack after spies discovered Nasrallah was set to convene a meeting of his surviving leaders at his underground HQ.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halev said “a lot of preparation” was behind the attack.
He said: “It was the right time, [we] did it in a very precise way.”
Before warning Israel was set to continue with their targeted assaults across the border.
“This is not the end of our toolbox, we have to be very clear. We have more capacity going forward,” Halev added.
Following Nasrallah’s death, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – one of his closest allies – issued a chilling message to Israel.
He did not mention Nasrallah – but slammed Israel for the massive blitz on Lebanon.
Khamenei said Lebanon will make Israel “regret their actions” and blasted the “shortsighted and foolish” policies of Israeli leaders.
He claimed Israel was “too small” to cause any damage to Hezbollah.
It’s feared Iran could respond by targeting Israel directly, sending weapons through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon or by sending fighters to Lebanon to shore up Hezbollah, Professor Fawaz Gerges from LSE said.
Lebanese civilians and rescue workers look on as plumes of black smoke erupts from a residential blockREX
ReutersGiant clouds of smoke and flames seen rising from Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh last night[/caption]
The chair of contemporary Middle Eastern Studies said Israel has effectively “declared all-out war”.
He told Sky News: “Benjamin Netanyahu has declared all-out war against the entire axis of resistance – including Iran.
“This is a decade-long war… Hezbollah will bide its time.
“Israel has been trying to systematically destroy the leadership structure of Hezbollah – and there are hundreds of leaders who could replace him [Hassan Nasrallah].”
Mr Gerges suggested Israel is “trying to soften that structure in preparation for a ground invasion”.
But former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert hopes a ground invasion won’t happen.
He told Sky News: “I certainly hope that we will not do it. I think it will be very violent and very bad for the Lebanese in the south.
“It won’t bring the kind of solution that will make it different or change the balance.”
Nasrallah has been in hiding for years amid increasing tensions with Israel with him rarely being seen in public.
His last national appearance followed the deadly pager and walkie-talkie blasts earlier this month.
He led Iran-backed Hezbollah during the last war with Israel in 2006 and has been a thorn in his enemies side ever since.
He oversaw a massive Iran-backed programme of rebuilding the group’s military machine to become the most heavily armed terror group on Earth.
Just days ago he pledged to carry on fighting Israel armed with a terrifying arsenal of 150,000 missiles and drones.
The chilling rise of terror boss Hassan Nasrallah
By Sayan Bose, Foreign News Reporter
ISRAEL has claimed to have killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a series of massive aircraft strikes that rocked Lebanon.
If true, his death would mark a huge shift in the Middle East crisis, with Hezbollah being left incredibly weak and Iran losing its grip on its biggest terror proxy.
Here we we take a look at Hassan Nasrallah’s life and his rise as the biggest terror boss in the Middle East.
Born in 1960, Nasrallah belonged to a poor Shia Muslim family who grew up in the slums of Sharshabouk in Beirut.
While growing up, he moved to south Lebanon to study theology and became a devout follower of Islam.
In 1982, Nasrallah joined Hezbollah shortly after it was formed as a political and paramilitary organisation.
Over the years, the fundamental Islamist rose through the ranks leading Hezbollah in multiple conflicts against Israel.
It was under Nasrallah’s stone-cold leadership that Hezbollah became a regional military power before being deemed an Islamic terror organisation by many countries including Britain and America.
He made Israel the prime enemy of the terror group – and sought for its destruction.
The terror chief has deeper ties with other Shia-based terror outfits like the Houthis and Hamas in a bid to wipe Israel from the world map.
Nasrallah holds the title of Sayyed, an honorific meant to signify the Shia cleric’s lineage dating back to the Prophet Muhammad.
He was regarded as an influential Islamist figure in the Middle East and had countless followers in the region.
For many years Nasrallah kept an extremely low profile and was never seen in public, fearing an assassination at the hands of the Israelis.
Israel has wiped out a number of top Hezbollah commanders in airstrikes as they look to destroy the para-militant group.
Over the past 11 months, Israel has eliminated nearly all of the terror group’s top brass.
Leading many to believe replacing Nasrallah will be a tricky task with a natural predecessor yet to be lined up.
Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy research director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut labelled Nasrallah as a “legendary figure” for many in Lebanon.
He told Reuters how his death would be a huge issue for Hezbollah, explaining how the “whole landscape would change big time”.
He said: “He has been the glue that has held together an expanding organisation.”
IDF military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Friday that a “precise strike” hit Hezbollah’s “central headquarters” located underneath residential buildings in Dahiyeh.
Huge 4,000lb laser and GPS-guided GBU-28 and 2,000lb Blu-109 bunker buster bombs are believed to have been deployed – burrowing up to 200ft below ground before exploding.
Images of the Lebanese suburb shows a series of huge blasts with large mushroom clouds erupting into the sky last night.
A source close to Hezbollah said the wave of strikes took out six buildings – including apartment blocks.
Thousands were forced to flee their homes as the rockets closed in.
Eleven people were killed along with more than 100 others wounded, according Lebanon’s health ministry.
A second round of Israeli strikes hit the same area of Beirut later in the night.
Pictures show smoking buildings early this morning following the successive blitzes.
Hezbollah has already retaliated after they fired rockets on the Israeli city of Safed – but there are no reports of casualties.
The destruction of Hezbollah’s HQ came just a day after a ceasefire plan appeared to fall through.
Western nations called for a 21-day pause in the fighting to end the 11-month conflict between Israel and the terror group to its north.
But Israel on Thursday rejected the ceasefire plan saying they will fight the paramilitary group “until victory”.
It comes as Israel continues to gear up for a huge ground offensive across the border and into Lebanon.
The IDF have been making plans to activate two brigades consisting of up to 10,000 soldiers for “operational missions”.
On Friday, this morning they announced three more battalions of reserve soldiers are also being readied up.
Inside Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah
By Oliver Harvey, Chief Feature Writer
MORTAL enemies Hezbollah and Israel are on the verge of open warfare, risking a deadly wider conflict in the troubled region.
After decades of bloodshed, the powerful and well-armed Islamist militia has tentacles stretching across the globe.
With Iran’s ayatollah as its puppet master, Hezbollah says it has 100,000 fanatical fighters at its call.
Analysts estimate it has as many as 500,000 rockets and missiles trained on Israel.
Military expert Professor Michael Clarke told me: “Hezbollah are a formidable force. They’re very well equipped. They’ve got more tunnels than Hamas had.
“The tunnels in Lebanon are burrowed out of rock, and hard to destroy. They have around half a million projectiles that they can fire at Israel.
“If they chose to fire off great salvos of these things, a thousand or so at a time, three or four times a day, they are likely to overwhelm Israeli air defences.”
Hezbollah first made their name as a terrorist outfit in 1982 when Israel invaded its northern neighbour Lebanon to root out the Palestine Liberation Organization.
In the bloody fighting, Israel occupied the south of the country and Shia Muslim militias took up arms against the invaders.
Seeing an opportunity to extend its influence, Iran provided funding and training to the group which became known as Hezbollah — meaning Party Of God.
Hell-bent on destroying Israel, it was soon wreaking havoc.
In 1983, it launched a suicide bombing of barracks in the Lebanese capital Beirut, housing US and French troops, leaving more than 300 dead.
The same year, another Hezbollah terrorist drove a van packed with explosives into the compound of the US Embassy in Beirut, killing 63.
The terror group — which is also a political party providing education and health care — developed a taste for kidnapping, too.
Then in 2006, a separate full-blown war was triggered by a deadly cross-border raid by Hezbollah.
It was supposed to be a pushover for Israel’s well-trained regular armed forces against a guerilla army.
But as the Israeli tanks rolled into Lebanon they were quickly met with firm resistance.
Hezbollah had tunnelled deep into Lebanon’s craggy hillsides and built well- fortified positions amid its towns and villages.
Rather than the ragtag irregulars the Israelis expected, they faced highly trained and well-armed troops with night-vision goggles and sophisticated communications.
APFamilies were forced out of their homes after being displaced by the airstrikes[/caption]
