Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah (credit: Shutterstock, edited by All Israel News staff)
CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA — Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the top leader of the Iranian-funded, armed, and directed Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon, is dead.
The 64-year-old terror master was assassinated on Friday afternoon in a massive Israeli air strike on Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon.
His death was confirmed by Israel Defense Forces on Saturday morning, and by Hezbollah later in the afternoon.
Millions of Israeli and Lebanese citizens are just beginning to hear the news and wondering if this signals the beginning of an Israeli ground invasion into southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah north of the Litani River.
18th SENIOR HEZBOLLAH LEADER KILLED – “GAME-CHANGING ESCALATION”
Nasrallah was the 18th Hezbollah leader assassinated through precision Israeli targeting – based on astonishingly precise intelligence – in recent weeks, and by far the most senior and significant.
The entire Hezbollah leadership structure has been decimated since the summer.
The big question now is this: Will the Iranian regime order mid-level Hezbollah operatives to unleash tens of thousands of missiles at Israel in retaliation, out of Hezbollah’s arsenal of approximately 150,000 missiles, or is Hezbollah now a paralyzed terror group?
“Iran’s embassy in Beirut described the strikes as a ‘dangerous, game-changing escalation’, calling them a ‘crime’ that merits ‘appropriate punishment,’” reported the UK Daily Mail.
WAS NETANYAHU’S TRIP TO NEW YORK PART OF AN ISRAELI DECEPTION CAMPAIGN?
“A senior Israeli official told the Telegraph that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel for New York, in part, to trick Hezbollah’s leader into thinking he was safe,” reported the UK newspaper, The Telegraph.
“Mr. Netanyahu’s address to the UN ‘was part of a diversion’ intended to make Hezbollah’s leader believe that Israel would not take dramatic actions while Netanyahu was physically in the United States, the official explained.”
IDF CONFIRMS IT TARGETED HEZBOLLAH’S HEADQUARTERS IN BEIRUT
“Moments ago, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a precise strike on the Central Headquarters of the Hezbollah terror organization that served as the epicenter of Hezbollah’s terror,” IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari announced on Friday afternoon.
“Hezbollah’s central headquarters was intentionally built under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahieh, in Beirut, as part of Hezbollah’s strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields,” he noted.
“On October 8th, Hezbollah started attacking Israel. After almost a year of Hezbollah firing rockets, missiles, and suicide drones at Israeli civilians, after almost a year of Israel warning the world and telling them that Hezbollah must be stopped, Israel is doing what every sovereign state in the world would do if they had a terror organization that seeks their destruction on their border, taking the necessary action to protect our people so that Israeli families can live in their homes, safely and securely.”
The IDF also reported that Israeli fighter jets are continuing to strike “terror targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization deep in Lebanon and southern Lebanon, including launchers which were directed toward Israeli civilians as well as structures in which weapons were stored. The IDF is continuing to operate to degrade and dismantle Hezbollah’s terrorist capabilities and infrastructure.”
NETANYAHU RACES HOME ON SHABBAT TO OVERSEE NEXT STAGE OF THE WAR
The Axios news service reported: “The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu will cut his trip to New York short and travel back to Israel on Friday, taking the unusual step of traveling on Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath).”
Axios also reported that Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati decided to fly back to Beirut from New York ahead of schedule following the Israeli attack, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.
