Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu says killing of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah will change balance of power in the region – Middle East live

William Christou reports from Beirut…

Hezbollah has issued a statement confirming the death of its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday, ending his 32-year tenure as the group’s leader.

The group said in a statement:

His eminence, the master of resistance, the righteous servant, has passed away to be with his lord who is pleased with him as a great martyr.

The leadership of Hezbollah pledges … to continue its jihad in confronting the enemy [Israel], supporting Gaza and Palestine, and defending Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people.

The statement did not mention who would succeed Nasrallah, or how the group would respond to the assassination of its long-time leader.

Hezbollah added it would continue its battle against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people”.

After Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death, Iranian media reported that General Abbas Nilforoushan, a deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, had died “next to Nasrallah” in the Israeli strikes on south Beirut on Friday. This claim has not been independently verified by the Guardian.

A projectile fired from Lebanon crashed in the West Bank on Saturday, sparking fires, the Israeli military said.

Earlier, air raid sirens sounded on the outskirts of Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli alert apps, which the Israeli military said were triggered by “a launch from Lebanon toward Israeli territory”.

“The fallen projectile was identified in the area of Mitzpe Hagit,” the military said in a statement.

“Israeli fire and rescue services are currently operating to extinguish fires caused by the fallen projectile in the area.”

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties, Reuters reported.

Gunshots fired into the air, women wailing in the streets, the ever-present buzz of drones and the distant thud of Israeli airstrikes: this was the sound of mourning in Beirut on Saturday. Hassan Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for 32 years, was dead, killed in an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the day before.

For many in Lebanon, his killing had been unimaginable. But Israel’s war with Hezbollah had long surpassed what was previously thought possible. Pagers had exploded in hands, walkie-talkies blew up in belts and Israeli warplanes killed hundreds in half a day. The death of Nasrallah was one more blow to the Lebanese psyche, already struggling to grasp soaring death tolls and, for some, the loss of their home overnight.

“We are living on what the Seyyed [Nasrallah] has given us. He allowed us to raise our heads up high. Whatever the Seyyed would say, I would follow,” said Faisal, a 46-year-old man from Dahieh, sharing a piece of broken-off Styrofoam with his wife as a cushion while they watched their two young boys play in Martyrs’ Square in downtown Beirut. They sat in a decrepit, rusted phone booth, using it for shelter from the sun, which had been beating down on them for hours.

The British government has been securing extra flights for UK nationals to make their way out of Lebanon, as ministers continued to urge citizens still in the country to “leave now”.

Official advice has been warning British nationals to leave the country for months. But with the escalation of tension following the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, there have been fresh appeals to Britons to urgently secure a place on a flight.

Commercial flights are still operating and Foreign Office officials have been working to increase the number available for British nationals. There have also been appeals for them to register their presence in the country with the government.

The embassy is also being aided by an emergency team attempting to make contact with British people known to be in the country. Official advice to leave the country has actually been in place since October last year, citing the risks arising for the conflict taking place in Gaza.

About one million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks, including hundreds of thousands since yesterday, Nasser Yassin, the minister coordinating the government’s crisis response, told Reuters on Saturday.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that the killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was a historical turning point that could change the balance of power in the Middle East though he warned of “challenging days” ahead.

“Nasrallah was not a terrorist, he was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Nasrallah’s killing was a necessary step toward achieving the goals we have set, returning residents of the north safely to their homes and changing the balance of power in the region for years to come.”

Israel’s attacks across Lebanon have left more than 200,000 civilians forcibly displaced in the country.

On Saturday, Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner of refugees, said that more than 50,000 Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon have crossed into Syria in attempts to flee Israeli airstrikes.

US vice-president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris has released the following statement on Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah:

Hassan Nasrallah was a terrorist with American blood on his hands. Across decades, his leadership of Hezbollah destabilized the Middle East and led to the killing of countless innocent people in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and around the world. Today, Hezbollah’s victims have a measure of justice.

I have an unwavering commitment to the security of Israel. I will always support Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

President Biden and I do not want to see conflict in the Middle East escalate into a broader regional war. We have been working on a diplomatic solution along the Israel-Lebanon border so that people can safely return home on both sides of that border. Diplomacy remains the best path forward to protect civilians and achieve lasting stability in the region.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said he is “gravely concerned by the dramatic escalation of the events in Beirut in the last 24 hours” and urged for the “cycle of violence” to stop.

He went on to add:

This cycle of violence must stop now. All sides must step back from the brink. The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel, as well as the wider region, cannot afford an all-out war.”

Lebanon’s government declares three days of mourning for the death of Hassan Nasrallah, starting on Monday.

Spontaneous marches of mourners beating their chests while hoisting Hezbollah’s flags happened in various neighbourhoods in Beirut during the day.

In response to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon which killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah while leveling six residential buildings, killing multiple people, and causing dozens of injuries and the forcible displacement of thousands of Lebanese and Syrian civilians, Joe Biden called the move a “measure of justice.”

Biden added:

“The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023. Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a “northern front” against Israel…

The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups.”

“By the grace and power of God, the blows struck by the Resistance Front on the worn-out, deteriorating body of the Zionist regime will become even more crushing,” said Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei about Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

He went on to add:

“The foul-natured Zionist regime has not become victorious by carrying out this atrocity.”

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been releasing a series of statements on the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

In multiple posts on X, Khamenei said:

“Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah was martyred while busy making plans for defending the defenseless people of Beirut’s Dahiya neighborhood – the same way for tens of years he had planned, strategized, and fought for the oppressed people of Palestine & their occupied cities & villages.

After all his struggle on the path of God, the reward of martyrdom was Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah’s rightful recompense.”

Several Republican members of the US House of Representatives have issued a statement in response to Hassan Nasrallah’s death.

In a joint statement on Saturday, House speaker Mike Johnson, House majority leader Steve Scalise and House Republican Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik, said:

“Hassan Nasrallah’s reign of bloodshed, oppression, and terror has been brought to an end. A puppet of the Iranian regime, he was one of the most brutal terrorists on the planet, and a coward who hid behind women and children to carry out his attacks. Thanks to the brave men and women of the Israeli military, justice was delivered for Israeli victims of his heinous crimes, their families, and the United States. The world is better off without him.

“We call on the Biden-Harris Administration to end its counter-productive calls for a cease-fire and its ongoing diplomatic pressure campaign against Israel. Nasrallah’s death is a major step forward for the Middle East, and today’s victory for peace and security should be used to reassert America’s ironclad support for Israel as it fights for its very right to exist.”

Hezbollah confirmed the death of its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh:

In a statement on Saturday, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said that he discussed Israel’s latest attacks on Lebanon with Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Austin said:

I expressed my full support for Israel’s right to defend itself and its people against Iranian backed terrorist groups.

I stressed that the United States is determined to prevent Iran and Iranian-backed partners and proxies from exploiting the situation or expanding the conflict.

I made it clear that the United States remains postured to protect US forces and facilities in the region and committed to the defense of Israel.

Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Iraq’s prime minister, said the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah showed “the reckless desire to expand the conflict at the expense of all the peoples of the region and their security and stability”.

The office of the prime minister announced three days of mourning and said Israel has crossed “all red lines” through the killing of Nasrallah.

In an update, Lebanon’s health ministry has said 11 people were killed on Friday as a result of Israeli airstrikes in southern Beirut, with 108 people reported to have been injured.

Here are some of the latest images coming out of Lebanon:

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi told the UN general assembly there must not be a delay in reaching a “comprehensive ceasefire” in the Middle East, and said a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians remains the way out of the region’s tensions.

Israel rejected global calls on Thursday for a ceasefire with the Hezbollah movement, defying its biggest ally in Washington.

Despite Israel’s stance, the US and France sought to keep prospects alive for an immediate 21-day truce they proposed on Wednesday, and said negotiations continued.

Meanwhile, negotiations, mediated mainly by Qatar, Egypt and the US, over a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza have been faltering for months.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has insisted that any peace agreement must allow an Israeli presence along the Philadelphi corridor, and on a road bisecting the Gaza Strip, the Netzarim corridor.

As my colleague Julian Borger explains in this report, Hamas has rejected any such presence, saying it contravenes a three-stage peace plan announced by Joe Biden at the end of May, and later endorsed by the UN security council, which ultimately envisages a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Despite American officials saying they are trying to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, Washington remains by far the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, allowing it to fuel its war on the enclave.

 

Updated: September 28, 2024 — 7:53 pm

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