Hezbollah confirms death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah in Israeli airstrike

The Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah on Saturday afternoon confirmed the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike.
Hezbollah called Nasrallah "a great martyr" and said he was killed in a "treacherous Zionist" attack on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut.
The Iran-backed Shiite movement pledged "to continue its jihad in confronting the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people."
Shortly after Hezbollah made the announcement, heavy gunshots into the air could be heard in Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said earlier on Saturday that Nasrallah and several high-ranking Hezbollah commanders were killed in an airstrike on Friday.
Rarely seen in public, Nasrallah enjoyed cult status among his Shiite Muslim supporters, and was the only man in Lebanon with the power to wage war or make peace.

Before his death was confirmed, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP contact with the group's leader had been "lost" since Friday night.

"Hassan Nasrallah is dead," Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani had announced earlier on X.

Another military spokesman, Captain David Avraham, told AFP the Hezbollah chief had been "eliminated" in Friday night strikes on Beirut.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday condemned what he called Israel's "short-sighted" policy in the region.

"The massacre of the defenceless people in Lebanon once again... proved the short-sighted and stupid policy of the leaders of the usurping regime," Khamenei said in a statement, without mentioning Nasrallah's fate.

Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border attacks a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

Israel has over the past few days shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 700 people and displaced around 118,000.