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Lebanon killed dozens of people on Sunday as the Hezbollah militant group sustained a string of deadly blows to its command structure, including the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah confirmed Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of the militant group's Central Council, was killed on Saturday, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades. Hezbollah had earlier confirmed that Ali Karaki, another senior commander, died in Friday's strike that killed Nasrallah. Israel says at least 20 other Hezbollah militants were killed in the strike, including two close associates of Nasrallah, one of whom was in charge of his security detail.

Pope Francis suggested Sunday that Israel's attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been «immoral» and disproportionate, saying its military domination has gone beyond the rules of war. Francis was asked en route home from Belgium about Israel's targeted killing of one of Hezbollah's founding members, Hassan Nasrallah. Friday's strike in Beirut targeted an area greater than a city block and reduced several residential buildings to rubble, and at least six other deaths have been confirmed. Francis didn't mention Israel by name and said he was speaking in general terms. But he said that «the defense must always be proportionate to the attack.»

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BEIRUT—Hassan Nasrallah and other senior leaders of Hezbollah were under siege as they gathered Friday afternoon in a bunker more than 60 feet beneath the surface of a bustling working class neighborhood in southern Beirut. A series of Israeli attacks had killed many of the Lebanese militant group’s senior leaders, blown up its electronic devices and destroyed some of its vast arsenal of missiles.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. THE SILENCE was deafening. By mid-afternoon on September 28th it had been almost 24 hours since Israel tried to assassinate Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, a Lebanese Shia militia.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an airstrike in Beirut. Reports indicate that an Iranian mole provided Israeli authorities with critical information about his whereabouts just hours before the attack. According to the French newspaper Le Parisien, the mole informed Israeli officials that Nasrallah was at Hezbollah's underground headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs for a meeting with top members of the organization. Around 1.30 pm IST yesterday (11 am Lebanon time), Israel Defence Forces said in a post on X, «Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.» Later in the day, Hezbollah confirmed the news. «Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah… has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,» it said in a statement. The recent airstrike is part of Israel's ongoing campaign against Hezbollah, which has been bolstered by significant intelligence efforts. A report from The New York Times highlights that Israel has devoted increased resources to gather intelligence on Hezbollah since the 2006 war, a conflict that ended without a decisive Israeli victory.

Armed men fired shots in the air and shut down shops in parts of Beirut and Hezbollah supporters said they were in a state of shock and disbelief on Saturday after the death of the Lebanese armed group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday Nasrallah had been killed, issuing a statement hours after the Israeli military said it had eliminated him in an airstrike on the group's headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday. Nasrallah's death marked a devastating blow to Hezbollah as it reels from an intense campaign of Israeli attacks, and even as the news emerged some of the group's supporters were desperately hoping that somehow he was still alive.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims on Saturday «to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the… wicked regime (of Israel)». Khamenei, in a statement after the Israeli army said it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, said: «The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront», state media reported. After Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's death, Iranian media reported that General Abbas Nilforoushan, a deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, had died «next to Nasrallah» in the Israeli strikes on south Beirut on Friday.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Israel brought its fight with Hezbollah to the doorstep of Beirut, with a series of overnight attacks on the city’s southern suburbs following a massive airstrike aimed at killing the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. Israeli officials were still assessing whether Nasrallah had been killed in the strike but felt it was unlikely he had survived, people familiar with the matter said.

Hezbollah group confirmed on Saturday that its leader and one of its founders, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous day. A statement Saturday said Nasrallah «has joined his fellow martyrs.» Hezbollah vowed to «continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.» Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, is by far the most powerful target to be killed by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leadership met at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.

Iran has accused the United States of being «complicit» in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and Lebanon, alleging that the strikes used US-supplied bunker buster bombs on residential areas in Beirut. The US has denied any prior knowledge of the attacks. Reports indicate that the Israeli airstrikes aimed at Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, significantly damaged six buildings. Communications with Nasrallah were lost following the strikes. Nonetheless, sources close to Hezbollah and Iranian news agencies report that Nasrallah is alive, with Tehran still verifying his status. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticized the US at the United Nations Security Council, saying, «Just this morning, the Israeli regime used several 5,000-pound bunker busters that had been gifted to them by the United States to hit residential areas in Beirut. One cannot disregard the US complicity in the crime.»

Hezbollah, defying calls from allies including the US for a halt in fighting. Israeli warplanes bombarded Lebanon, including a strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut that shook the capital. On its own side of the border, the Israeli army staged an exercise simulating a ground invasion. The relentless pressure on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, including intense airstrikes and assassinations of some of its senior commanders, raised concern that of a wider war spreading across the region. The military, which has vowed to secure Israel's northern border and return thousands of Israeli citizens to communities there, said the exercise of its 7th brigade took place a few kilometres from the Lebanese border.

Australia has urged an estimated 15,000 of its citizens living in Lebanon to leave, flagging a risk Beirut airport may close and the difficulty of evacuating large numbers if the situation worsens. Israel widened its airstrikes in Lebanon on Wednesday and at least 72 people were killed, and Israel's military chief said a ground assault was possible. Britain is moving troops to Cyprus, joining two Royal Navy ships already there, to be in a position to help evacuate nationals trapped in Lebanon. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government had made contingency plans that could include evacuations by water, but declined to give details.

The strike hit three floors of a six-story building. It was Israel's third strike over Beirut in less than a week Kobeissi is the first member of the militant group pronounced dead since Israel and Hezbollah entered a more intense phase of the ongoing conflict.

The suspensions have multiplied following a day of Israeli bombardment that Lebanon's authorities said killed 558 on Monday — the deadliest day of violence in the country since the 1975-90 civil war. — Emirates - Emirates announced the temporary suspension of its flights to Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday. Its sister United Arab Emirates-based airline flydubai also cancelled flights to Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BEIRUT—Israel launched devastating attacks on Hezbollah in recent days with airstrikes and remote-control explosions that put the Lebanese militant group on the defensive and demonstrated Israel’s vast superiority in intelligence gathering and technology. A ground war between the two, if it occurs, would likely be a different story.

Hezbollah — deadly attacks pinned on Israel that also maimed civilians across Lebanon. Hezbollah's leader vowed to retaliate, and on Friday the militant group launched a wave of rockets into northern Israel. Later in the day, the commander of Hezbollah's most elite unit was killed in a strike in Beirut that killed dozens more people. The cross-border attacks ramped up early Sunday, with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite group that is Lebanon's most powerful armed force, launching more than 100 rockets deeper into northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa. Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon.

The rocket barrage overnight sent thousands of people scrambling into shelters. The Israeli military said rockets had been fired «toward civilian areas,» pointing to a possible escalation after previous barrages had mainly been aimed at military targets. The barrage came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 37 people, including one of Hezbollah's top leaders as well as women and children. The militant group was already reeling from a sophisticated attack that caused thousands of personal devices to explode just days earlier.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. TEL AVIV : With escalating attacks on Hezbollah’s rank and file, commanders and infrastructure, Israel is pressing its military and intelligence advantage to give the Lebanese group an implied ultimatum: make a deal to pull back from Israel’s northern border, or go to war. Israel is rotating its attention to its border with Lebanon as the Gaza Strip battlefield becomes static, launching an aggressive series of attacks that have devastated Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BEIRUT—Israel’s airstrike on a building in southern Beirut didn’t just kill a top Hezbollah commander—it took out an entire class of senior leaders of the militant group’s most elite fighting force, as the two foes lurch closer to all-out war. Hezbollah on Saturday raised the death toll among its fighters from Friday’s airstrike to 16, including top military commander Ibrahim Aqil and many of the senior commanders of the elite Radwan force.

IDF) announced the death of Ibrahim Aqil, the alleged head of Hezbollah's Operations Unit, in a targeted strike in Beirut. The operation also killed members of Hezbollah's Operations Staff and commanders from the Radwan Unit. The IDF reported that Aqil and the other commanders were planning a major attack called the "Conquer the Galilee" plan, aiming to infiltrate Israeli communities and target civilians. «I can now confirm that Ibrahim Aqil was eliminated together with other senior terrorists in Hezbollah's Radwan forces. Ibrahim Aqil had the blood of many innocent people on his hands. Israelis, Americans, French, Lebanese and more,» stated IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Hezbollah official Ibrahim Aqil was killed in a targeted strike in the Jamous area south of Beirut on Friday, as confirmed by both Hezbollah and the Israeli military. Aqil was a member of the group’s military council and led Hezbollah’s Operations Unit for two decades. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, stated, “Ibrahim Aqil had the blood of many innocent people on his hands — Israelis, Americans, French, Lebanese and more.” He added that Aqil and other members killed in the strike were in the process of planning additional attacks on Israel.