Saturday 28 / September / 2024
Beirut: Lebanon’s Hezbollah has confirmed that its leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike, while pledging to continue its “holy war” against Israel.
“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,” the group said in a statement.
The statement says Hezbollah vows to “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.”
Iran’s supreme leader calls on Muslims to ‘stand by the people of Lebanon’
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called on Muslims to help fight Israel, saying that Lebanon’s Hezbollah would play a major role in deciding the fate of the Middle East region.
In a statement that did not mention the status of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah despite Israeli claims to have killed him, Khamenei said Muslims should “stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah” in the fight against the “wicked regime (of Israel).”
“The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” state media reported him as saying.
“The massacre of the defenceless people in Lebanon once again revealed the ferocity of the Zionist rabid dog to everyone and proved the short-sighted and stupid policy of the leaders of the usurping regime,” Khamenei said.
Regional officials briefed by Tehran have told Reuters news agency that Khamenei has been transferred to a secure location in Iran under heightened security.
Israel says it is on high alert after reported Nasrallah killing
The Israeli military says it expects Hezbollah to continue its attacks on Israel despite reportedly losing its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
“We hope this will change Hezbollah’s actions,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters after the IDF said it had killed Nasrallah.
But, he said, “It’s safe to assume that they are going to continue carrying out their attacks against us or try to.”
A wider escalation?
“So are we ready for a wider escalation? Yes. We’ve been in a wider escalation, a multi-front war, for a year. Our forces are on high alert, our intelligence is up and looking for these types of threats,” he further said.
Israel’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said Israel, too, would continue its attacks on the the group even after Nasrallah’s death.
Halevi said the killing of Nasrallah was “not the end of our toolbox.”
“The message to all those who threaten the citizens of the state of Israel is simple: We will know how to reach them. In the north, in the south and in more distant places,” he said.
Hezbollah itself has yet to issue any statement on the status of Nasrallah.
