Beirut
People walk amid the rubble of buildings which were levelled by Israeli strikes that targeted and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs on September 29, 2024. Image Credit: AFP

Beirut, Lebanon: Israel carried out a fresh attack on Sunday on Hezbollah's southern Beirut bastion, a Lebanese security official said, with the Israeli military announcing a "precise strike".

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"Israel carried out an air strike on Beirut's southern suburb," said the Lebanese official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a "violent raid carried out by Israeli warplanes", adding that ambulances had rushed to the area of Beirut's southern suburbs.

A witness said a rocket hit a building, which instantly collapsed.

The latest attack came days after a similar strike killed the group's powerful leader Hassan Nasrallah, sending tensions soaring amid intensive Israeli strikes on the country's east, south and south Beirut.

Lebanon
Smoke plumes billow following Israeli bombardment on south Lebanon from a position along the border in northern Israel on September 29, 2024 Image Credit: AFP

About 120 Hezbollah targets hit

The Israeli military said Sunday evening it hit dozens more Hezbollah targets in Lebanon during a new barrage "a short while ago", as frequent cross-border air raids continued.

"During the intelligence-based strikes, the (air force) struck approximately 120 Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon and deep inside Lebanese territory," a military statement said, adding that the targets included Hezbollah's infrastructure and "significant headquarters used by Hezbollah's different units".

Israel targets Houthis in Yemen

The Israeli military said it was striking several Houthi rebel targets in Yemen using dozens of aircraft.

"In a large-scale air operation today, dozens of Air Force aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelling planes, and reconnaissance aircraft, attacked military-use targets of the Huthi terrorist regime in the Ras Issa and Hodeida areas of Yemen," military spokesman Captain David Avraham said in a statement to AFP.

'More than 20' Hezbollah members killed 

The Israeli military said the strike that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah this week in Beirut also "eliminated" more than 20 other members of the Lebanese armed group.

"More than 20 other terrorists of varying ranks, who were present at the underground headquarters in Beirut located beneath civilian buildings, and were managing Hezbollah's terrorist operations against the state of Israel, were also eliminated," the military said in a statement that listed some of them.

20240929 nasrallah
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's death after the Israeli military said he had been killed in an air strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

A separate statement later said it had hit approximately 45 Hezbollah targets in the area of Kafra in southern Lebanon. Among those targets struck were weapons storage facilities and infrastructure sites belonging to the group, it said.

 

Body of Hezbollah chief Nasrallah recovered

 

The body of former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been found in the wreckage of an Israeli air strike in Beirut, CNN reported, citing a Lebanese security source. The report stated that the corpse was intact.

Another source stated that Nasrallah's body had no visible wounds and that it appeared the cause of death was blunt trauma from the force of the blast.

20240929 LEBANON
A woman weeps in front of the rubble of buildings which were levelled by Israeli strikes in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs.

On Friday, Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's death after the Israeli military stated he had been killed in an air strike 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 killing while some Hezbollah allies vowed vengeance, fuelling fears of more violence in the Middle East after nearly a year of war in Gaza.

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"Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah... has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years," Hezbollah said in a statement.

Netanyahu says Israel 'settled the score'

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel had "settled the score" for the killing of Israelis and citizens of other countries, including Americans.

He said that as long as Nasrallah was alive, 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.

Iran, which arms and finances Hezbollah, said a senior member of its Revolutionary Guards Corps was killed in the same strike. A source close to Hezbollah said the group's top commander in south Lebanon, Ali Karake, had also died.

Crime 'will not go unanswered'

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday the killing in Lebanon of a senior Revolutionary Guards general in an Israeli strike, alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, "will not go unanswered."

"This horrible crime of the aggressor Zionist regime will not go unanswered, and the diplomatic apparatus will also use all its political, diplomatic, legal and international capacities to pursue the criminals and their supporters," he said, according to a foreign ministry statement.

LEBANON WAR FLEE
People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria. Image Credit: AFP

'Largest' wave of displacement ever

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Sunday said his country could be witnessing its largest wave of displacement ever amid intense Israeli air strikes.

"It is the largest displacement movement that may have happened... in Lebanon," Mikati told reporters, after saying up to one million people could be displaced by the Israeli attacks.

Top Hezbollah official killed in Saturday strike

The Israeli military said on Sunday it had killed a senior Hezbollah official in an air strike on a Beirut suburb the day before, as it continued to target the Lebanese armed group.

The military said Nabil Qaouq, a member of Hezbollah's central council, was "struck and eliminated" on Saturday, just a day after the group's chief, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a similar strike.

Nabil-Qaouq
This file photo shows (from L-R) Iranian Supreme Leader representative in Syria AbolFazl Tabatabai, Hezbollah executive board Vice President Nabil Qaouk and Adnan Badreddine, at the Sayyida Zeinab Shrine near Damascus on May 17, 2016. Image Credit: Photo by HO / Hezbollah's Media Office / AFP

Raids on 'dozens' of Hezbollah targets

The Israeli military said on Sunday it conducted strikes against "dozens" of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, two days after an air strike killed the group's chief Hassan Nasrallah.

The Israel Defense Forces "attacked dozens of terrorist targets in the territory of Lebanon in the last few hours," the army said in a statement on Telegram.

Iran calls for emergency UN meeting

Iran on Saturday called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in protest at the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon, according to a letter to the Council sent to AFP.

In the letter, Iran's UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani called on the Council to "take immediate and decisive action to stop Israel's ongoing aggression and prevent... from dragging the region into full-scale war."

Biden urges 'ceasefire'

US President Joe Biden on Saturday called for a ceasefire after Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon - part of an extended bombing campaign against the strongholds of the Iran-backed militant group.

"It's time for a ceasefire," Biden said in response to a reporter asking whether an Israeli ground invasion was inevitable.

33 killed, 195 wounded in Israeli strikes

Lebanon said that Israeli strikes had killed 33 people and wounded 195 others in the country Saturday.

"The Israeli aggression against Lebanese regions has resulted in 33 deaths today and has wounded 195 people", the country's health ministry said in a statement on the sixth day of an Israeli bombing campaign against the strongholds of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.