While Hezbollah has yet to comment, Israel says it hit the group’s leaders at their headquarters in south Beirut.
The Israeli military says it has killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air attack on Lebanon’s capital Beirut, although the group has yet to issue a statement on his fate.
“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced on X on Saturday.
Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and additional Hezbollah commanders were also killed in the massive air strike in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh on Friday, the Israeli military claimed.
“Most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated,” said Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said a total of six people were killed and 91 injured in the bombardment, which levelled six apartment buildings. Israeli air attacks continued to hammer Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas of Lebanon on Saturday, with Israel’s military claiming to hit over 140 Hezbollah targets.
While Hezbollah issued no formal statement on Nasrallah, a source close to the group told the AFP news agency that contact with him had been lost since Friday.
Israel’s military said the country is on high alert following his claimed killing.
‘Larger than life’
Nasrallah, 64, has led the Iran-backed group for more than 32 years, serving as a political and spiritual leader guiding Hezbollah to a place of prominence in Lebanon.
Among his supporters, the Shia leader is lauded for standing up to Israel and defying the United States. To his enemies, he is the head of a terrorist organisation and a proxy for Iran in its tussle for influence in the Middle East.
“Hassan Nasrallah is a larger-than-life figure when it comes to the politics in the Middle East. He is the figurehead, Iran’s linchpin, if you will,” said Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker. “He really created Hezbollah into the organised fighting, disciplined force that it is today.”
“He is not just a symbolic figure, he is a man who is behind the strategic thinking, the military thinking,” added Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr from Beirut. “No doubt this would be a major setback for the organisation.”
Nasrallah’s regional influence was on display over nearly a year of conflict ignited by the Gaza war, as Hezbollah entered the fray by firing on Israel from southern Lebanon in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
While conflict with Israel has largely defined Nasrallah’s leadership, he is a divisive figure in Lebanon and the wider Arab world due to Hezbollah’s operations in Syria and beyond.
Nasrallah also has numerous domestic foes, including Sunni and Druze political forces which Hezbollah has clashed with in the country. He has rarely been seen in public in recent years due to security concerns.
Israel’s military, in its statement claiming Nasrallah’s killing, accused the leader of being responsible for the “murder of many Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist activities”.
‘Ways to go’
While many in Israel celebrated the claimed killing of Nasrallah, Israel’s military said it still had a “ways to go” in the fight against Hezbollah and would continue targeting its leaders.
“Hezbollah still has rockets and missiles and has the capability of shooting many of them simultaneously,” said Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani, adding that the Iran-backed group was believed to have “tens of thousands of rockets”.
The army’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi said: “The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel – we will know how to reach them.”
What comes next?
Nasrallah’s death would be another major blow to Hezbollah, which has been hit by a wave of unprecedented attacks in recent weeks, including pager and walkie-talkie explosions targeting its members.
“It is going to be extremely hard for the people of Lebanon who believe in the resistance to accept this assassination and the news of his death,” military analyst Elijah Magnier told Al Jazeera. “There is no other leader of the same charisma – not the leadership but the charisma – that Nasrallah enjoyed in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East among those who supported the resistance”.
Dekker said Nasrallah’s claimed death would also mean the loss of a “major asset in the region” to Iran, where protesters have taken to the streets.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained defiant amid the uncertainty over Nasrallah’s fate, saying Israel had not seriously hurt Hezbollah’s “strong structure”, and urging Muslims around the world to stand with Hezbollah in confronting Israel.
“Let the Zionist criminals know that they are far too insignificant to cause any major damage to the strong structure of Hezbollah in Lebanon,” said Khamenei in reference to Israel.
“By the grace of God, Lebanon will make the invading, wicked, and discredited enemy regret their actions,” he said.
Analysts said how Iran and Hezbollah will move forward is a major “question mark for the region”.
“What is Iran going to do? Is Iran going to respond?” said Dekker. “How will Hezbollah regroup?”
“Nobody is expecting [Khamenei] to spill the beans about the forthcoming plan of action,” Tehran-based journalist Tohid Asadi told Al Jazeera. “So we have to wait for the next hours and days to see what takes place on the ground.”