International concern prevails over the possibility of a generalization of the conflict in the Middle East, after the death of the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, by an Israeli strike in Viritou. At the same time, hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah are escalating in the field. The international community, waiting for Iran’s response, is holding its breath. The killing of Nasrallah, according to analysts, is an escalation with unforeseeable consequences.

At the same time, the neutralization of Nasrallah leaves Hezbollah headless, adding fuel to the fire of tension on the Israel-Iran front. Tehran is sending a “signal” of escalation, sending troops to Lebanon and Syria, with the country’s supreme spiritual leader issuing threats against Israel.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli strike near Beirut, the pro-Iranian movement announced today, a very heavy blow that is pushing Lebanon and the Middle East into the unknown, AFP notes.

The death of Hassan Nasrallah, considered the most powerful man in Lebanon, risks shaking his party, destabilizing the country and is a major victory for Israel against Iran and its allies in the region.

“Saget Hassan Nasrallah has joined his fellow martyrs (…) whose journey has been going on for almost thirty years,” said in a statement Hezbollahthe closest ally of Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.

The statement said the secretary general of the powerful armed group was killed along with other members of it “in an insidious Zionist raid in the southern suburbs of Beirut”.

The head of Hezbollah was killed in an airstrike launched by Israel in the late afternoon on Friday in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the Israeli military said it targeted the headquarters of the Islamist group.

“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani told X earlier.

Hezbollah’s leader since 1992, 64-year-old Hassan Nasrallah, was a devout Shiite who was the object of genuine worship in Lebanon’s Shiite community.

“The message is simple: whoever threatens the citizens of Israel, we know how to reach them,” warned Israel’s chief of staff, General Herchi Halevi.

The military later said that the “majority” of Hezbollah’s senior officials had been “killed” in Israeli operations in recent months.

The commander of the front was also killed

A source close to Hezbollah announced today the death of the commander of the front with Israel in southern Lebanon, Ali Karaki, in the Israeli strike that also claimed the life of the leader of the pro-Iranian movement, Hassan Nasrallah.

Ali Karaki, who had survived a strike targeting him earlier this week, “was killed in the Israeli strike along with Hassan Nasrallah,” the source said.

The deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards is also dead

According to the official Iranian news agency Irna, Abbas Niforoushan, one of the deputy commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was also killed in the Israeli strike.

IDF spokesman: Nasrallah’s death ‘makes world a safer place’

Israel’s military said today that the “killing” of Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made the world “safer” and insisted it was continuing to kill other leaders of the militant Islamist movement.

“Nasrallah was one of the greatest enemies ever of the state of Israel (…) His elimination makes the world safer,” army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Haggari said at a televised press conference on the day after the blow that claimed the life of the Hezbollah leader in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

“It is not over, Hezbollah has more capabilities,” Haggari added, noting that warplanes are currently striking the group across Lebanon.

Hagari also said that the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut where the Hezbollah leader was killed in an Israeli strike was a legitimate military target.

In a separate statement, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galand he addressed the people of Lebanon saying: “We are not at war against you. It is time for change.”

“To our enemies, I say: We are strong and determined,” he added.

For its part, the Israeli army’s home front command (passive defense) announced new security measures for central Israel, banning gatherings of more than a thousand people, particularly in Tel Aviv and the surrounding areas, where tens of thousands of people gather every Saturday here and months to demonstrate against the government.

The IDF spokesman said earlier: “Nasrallah was one of the most powerful terrorists in the world. He was a real threat, with the blood of thousands on his hands.”

“Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world,” reads the relative, modest statement of the IDF.

“new order”

״אני נגיע כל אקדם ולכ מקום’: מתוסי חיל-האויר בחיסול האסנסראלה ומקשדת חיזבאלה בלבאונה pic.twitter.com/Hi4fXfPhL2

— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) September 28, 2024

Hezbollah confirmed

For its part, Hezbollah later confirmed that its leader had been killed and vowed to continue the fight against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people.”

“Saget Hassan Nasrallah has joined his fellow martyrs, whose procession he led for almost thirty years,” the pro-Iranian organization said in a statement.

The organization’s television channel, AL-MANAR, began broadcasting prayers and verses from the Koran soon after.

The organization is now headless as all its leadership has been exterminated.

The Israeli @IDF confirms that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and one of its founders, was eliminated yesterday, together with Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders.

Nasrallah will no… pic.twitter.com/aThduf0bwe

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) September 28, 2024

Condolences from Hamas

The Palestinian organization Hamas said in a statement that it mourns the death of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, which Hezbollah announced today.

From yesterday until today’s official announcement by Israel there was a thriller about the fate of the Hezbollah leader, as the death was not officially confirmed by the IDF.

At the same time, there are reports from Israeli media that his daughter, Zeinab Nasrallah, was also killed in the Beirut attack, although there has been no official confirmation from Hezbollah or the Lebanese authorities.

What the attack against Nasrallah shows

The attack on Nasrallah “was very sophisticated. This shows not only the enormous technological capabilities but also the extent to which Israel was able to infiltrate Hezbollah,” said James Dorsey, a researcher at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.

“There is still a way to go,” said army spokesman Nadav Shoshani, estimating the movement’s arsenal at “tens of thousands of rockets” and saying that Hezbollah still has “the ability to fire multiple shots at once” at Israel.

The blast in Beirut’s southern suburbs destroyed dozens of buildings, according to an AFP photographer, and sent thousands of residents fleeing, including some families sleeping on the street. According to a provisional count by the Lebanese authorities, at least six people were killed.

Many hours after the impact, plumes of smoke were still rising from the wreckage.

Funded and equipped by Iran, Hezbollah was founded in 1982 at the initiative of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army.

Without mentioning the name of Hassan Nasrallah, Mr Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khameneisaid: “the slaughter of defenseless people in Lebanon” “proved the short-sighted and foolish policy of the leaders of the usurping regime”.

Hassan Nasrallah’s predecessor, Abbas Mousavi, was assassinated in February 1992 by an Israeli raid on his motorcade in southern Lebanon. His wife and one of his sons were also killed.

The message for Israel is simple, it was underlined yesterday from the headquarters of the United Nations and Benjamin Netanyahu sending a clear message to Tehran: “There is not a single place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach and that is true for the entire Middle East.”

An embarrassed Washington points out that she didn’t know anything beforehand

“The United States was not aware of or involved in the operation by the Israeli Armed Forces,” US President Joe Biden said.

Hezbollah launches a rocket attack and alarm sirens sound in Safed and other nearby towns in northern Israel.

Hezbollah on the counterattack – New Israeli hammer in Lebanon

At the same time, Israel is pounding southern and eastern Lebanon throughout the night. For the Israeli armed forces, the destruction of Nasrallah does not bring the end of their operations.

Despite the strikes launched by Israel, which has been shelling Hezbollah strongholds incessantly, the group announced today that it had fired rockets into northern Israel. However, often the vast majority of rockets are intercepted.

Hezbollah announced that it bombed northern Israel with Fadi-1 rockets the Cambri kibbutz at northern israel, in response to Israel’s “barbaric” attacks “on towns, villages and civilians” in Lebanon, according to its statement.

According to the report, Israel’s air defenses appear to have worked, with most of the rockets shot down.

Last Monday, the Israeli military launched a campaign of heavy and deadly bombing against Hezbollah in Lebanon, following cross-border exchanges of fire with the Lebanese group.

Hezbollah opened a front against Israel with the start of the war in Gaza, which broke out after fighters from its ally, the Palestinian group Hamas, attacked Israel on October 7.

Israel says it is acting to halt Hezbollah fire toward its north, which borders southern Lebanon, and thereby allow the return of tens of thousands of residents who were forced to flee their homes.

Today the Israeli military said it had struck “140 Hezbollah targets” since last night, and said it had killed one of its commanders in an airstrike in southern Lebanon.

A new Israeli strike also targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, hitting a building, according to a security source.

At least 700 people dead

Since Monday, Israeli shelling has killed at least 700 people, most of them civilians, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Within a year, the number of people who have been killed exceeds 1,500, a toll greater than that of the 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Chaos and chaos in Lebanon

In Lebanon, amidst the rubble and in the middle of the street, chaos and destruction spread in every corner of Beirut which now resembles Gaza with craters in place of the now leveled multi-story buildings

But the Middle East does not seem to escape its fate and is counting down to a total war that will bring destruction.