Hezbollah on Saturday confirmed that its long-standing leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had been killed after intense Israeli air strikes on Lebanon.
Nasrallah’s death is a major escalation in Israel’s war with the Lebanese militant group, which has potentially brought the region a step closer to even wider conflict.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, vowed Nasrallah’s death would “not go unavenged”. Iran, which has backed Hezbollah both financially and militarily, has declared several days of public mourning, as did Lebanon and Iraq.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described Nasrallah’s death, which came after Israel on Friday attacked what it said was Hezbollah’s central headquarters in Beirut, as a “historic turning point”.
He said by killing Nasrallah, Israel had “settled the score”.
United States president Joe Biden over the weekend said Nasrallah’s death was a “measure of justice” for his victims, but that Washington would keep working to de-escalate the conflict.
“It’s time for a ceasefire now,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it has carried out “dozens” of raids on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in a few hours.
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