Saturday 28 / September / 2024
The Israeli military has said Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia, was killed in a "precise" airstrike during a meeting of the group's leadership at its headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.
A source close to Hezbollah told the AFP news agency that contact to Nasrallah had been lost since Friday night, when the strike took place, but the group has yet to confirm his death.
"Hassan Nasrallah is dead," Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced on X, formerly Twitter.
The Israeli military says it has mobilized three reserve battalions as hostilities between Israel and Lebanon escalate.
"In accordance with the situational assessment, the IDF is calling up three reserve battalions for operational activities and to strengthen the defense in the Central Command," the military said. It provided no further details.
The Central Command's areas of operation includes the occupied West Bank.
Earlier this week, the military sent two battalions to northern Israel to train for a possible ground offensive into Lebanon to combat that country's Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, which has been carrying out attacks on Israel that it says are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel for its part says it will keep fighting Hezbollah until its border with Lebanon is secured, and has carried out many strikes in the neigboring country, including some on Saturday in southern Beirut and east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
