Israel’s strike on Hezbollah’s headquarters has sent the region on red alert. According to Israeli media, it was confirmed that the target of the strike was Hassan Nasrallah.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the raids targeted Hezbollah’s main headquarters, which located under residential buildings in Haret Hreik district of Dahiyeh.
The leader of Hezbollah remains unknown if was at the scene at the time of the attack with conflicting information. In Israel they take for granted that he was at the scene, while there is information that he had left a little earlier.
There is no official information from Hezbollah. Instead, a source in the group told Reuters that the group’s top official, Hashem Safieddin, is alive.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, two people were killed and 76 others were injured by the Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in the first, provisional count it announced. For their part, Israeli army officials estimate that 300 people were killed.
The only thing certain is that the death toll will rise since an entire block was demolished by the attack.
Who is Nasrallah, the reorganization of Hezbollah and Maradona
Hassan Nasrallah was born on August 31, 1960 in a poor family of nine children. His family comes from the village of Bazouriye, in southern Lebanon. As a teenager, he studied theology in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraq, but was forced to leave after the wave of persecution against the Shiite community unleashed by Iraq’s then-president Saddam Hussein. Returning to Lebanon he joined the Shia Amal movement but left when Israel invaded Lebanon in the summer of 1982, to join the newly formed Hezbollah.
The 64-year-old leader of Hezbollah has been living as a ghost since he rose to the top of the organization. Even his few interviews have been given in strict secrecy. He ascended to the leadership of Hezbollah in 1992, when he succeeded Mousavi, who was assassinated by Israel. During his leadership the organization upgraded and developed its arsenal with the help of Iran.
He always wears the black turban of the Sayyeds, the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, from whom he says he is descended. In a rare interview he had stated that in his youth he played football and still admires Maradona.
Netanyahu returns to Israel tonight from New York
After his speech at the UN, Benjamin Netanyahu made his way back. No one knows if this was planned or came about after Israel struck Beirut.
In fact, a photo was released “from the moment the Israeli prime minister gives the ‘order’ for the missile attack.”
According to Israeli reports, as soon as Netanyahu arrived in Israel, he convened an emergency council of war.
Threats from Iran
Today’s Israeli strike on a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs constitutes a “dangerous escalation” that “changes the rules of the game,” Iran’s embassy in Lebanon said.
In its post on Platform X, the embassy writes that the perpetrators of this “massacre” will receive “their just punishment”. Israel is crossing Tehran’s red lines and the situation is getting serious, Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, warned tonight.
“Killing will not solve Israel’s problem (…) By killing the resistance leaders, others will take their place,” Larijani said on Iranian state television.
The US had not been informed
The United States had not been informed in advance of the Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was speaking with his Israeli counterpart while the operation was underway, a Pentagon spokesman said.
“The US was not involved in this operation and was not informed in advance,” Sabrina Singh told reporters.
The two ministers spoke as Austin flew across the Atlantic, returning to the US after a visit to London.
The spokeswoman declined to say whether Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad told Austin about the operation and whether Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was indeed targeted. The Pentagon also doesn’t want to “speculate” about Nasrallah’s fate.
According to the White House, President Joe Biden was also briefed on the Beirut strikes by his National Security Council aides.
Photos from the search of the wreckage
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