Israel claims Hezbollah leader was killed in Beirut.
The Israeli military announced on September 28 that it had killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah militant group, in an airstrike in Beirut on September 27 (local time).
The country's military claims it carried out an airstrike while Hezbollah's leadership was meeting at its headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut. According to France24, Nasrallah has led Hezbollah for more than three decades.
Meanwhile, sources close to Hezbollah said on September 28 that they had lost contact with leader Hassan Nasrallah since the previous evening, after Israel claimed to have "eliminated" him in an attack on its southern stronghold in Beirut.
"We have lost contact with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah since Friday evening," the source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive issues. He did not confirm whether Nasrallah had died.
Earlier that day, Israel said its military had struck dozens of targets it described as belonging to Hezbollah on September 28 in eastern and southern Lebanon, after a surface-to-surface missile fired from Lebanon landed in an open area in central Israel.
- The large-scale attacks, allegedly targeting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, flattened several apartment buildings and caused families to flee in panic.
- The Israeli army said it has deployed three reserve battalions to bolster the defenses of its Central Command amid escalating conflict.
- On September 28, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a missile attack on northern Israel, the first such attack following intense Israeli airstrikes on southern suburbs of Beirut the previous night.
- The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced on the night of September 26th that Israeli airstrikes had killed 92 people and injured 153 in the previous 24 hours. The death toll on September 26th brought the total number of fatalities from Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since the beginning of the week to over 720. This figure does not include those killed in the airstrikes on September 27th and 28th.
