Hezbollah confirms its top leader was killed after Israeli airstrikes

Israel's military says several airstrikes Friday in central Beirut have killed the long-time leader of the Hezbollah militant group, Hassan Nasrallah, in what represents another dramatic new development in a conflict that has metastasized across the Middle East region since last October.

In a statement Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed the death of Nasrallah and offered condolences for others killed with him “following the treacherous Zionist raid on the southern suburb.”

In a post on the social media platform X, the Israeli military wrote that Nasrallah would "no longer be able to terrorize the world," prompting loud music to ring out across Tel Aviv in celebration of his death.

Nasrallah only very rarely made public appearances during his 32-year tenure atop a group that several nations, including the United States, have labeled a terrorist organization.

The airstrikes Friday had leveled several large residential buildings in southern Beirut, which Israeli officials had almost immediately labeled the headquarters of Hezbollah in statements they issued even as the smoke and debris clouds from the explosion rose above the city.

The Lebanese health ministry announced late Friday that six people had died and more than 90 had been injured by the strikes, but authorities said they were still clearing vast quantities of rubble, meaning those numbers would likely rise.

The announcement Saturday of Hezbollah's leader added that the group's senior military commander for the region close to Lebanon's border with Israel was also killed. This would effectively mean much of Hezbollah's command structure had been taken out by Israeli attacks in the past two months, as tit-for-tat rocket, artillery, tank and aircraft missiles continued across the border.

Israeli airstrikes continued across Beirut's southern suburbs and elsewhere in Lebanon Saturday morning. The Israeli military said reserve troops would mobilize close to the border with Lebanon, over which dozens of Hezbollah rockets continued to fly towards a swathe of northern and central Israel.

Israel says it has been preparing for a ground invasion into southern Lebanon, and had continued to call up reservists for several days this week.

Israel's top military commander, Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, issued a video statement Saturday, in which he said the unprecedented strikes Friday that had targeted Hezbollah's leadership was “not the end" for what he termed Israel's "toolbox.'

"Anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel, we will know how to reach them.”