Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah safe in Israeli airstrikes: sources

A wave of air raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday as Israel stepped up attacks on Hezbollah, after a massive strike on the Hezbollah’s command centre that supposedly targeted leader Hassan Nasrallah.

According to Reuters, more than 20 airstrikes witnessed before dawn on Saturday. Abandoning their homes in the southern suburbs, thousands of Lebanese congregated in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.

“They want to destroy Dahiye, they want to destroy all of us,” said Sari, a man in his 30s who gave only his first name, referring to the suburb he had fled after an Israeli evacuation order.

A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah “is alive,” while Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported he was “safe.”

A senior Iranian security official told the news agency that Tehran was checking his status.

Moreover, a source close to the group also spoke on the same wavelength with AFP. “Sayyed Nasrallah is fine,” the source said, requesting anonymity.displaced in Beirut’s Martyrs Square rolled mats onto the ground to try to sleep.

The Israeli army claimed Saturday it killed the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in southern Lebanon in an air strike, along with his deputy and several other leaders of the Iran-backed movement.

The Israeli military said it also killed Ibrahim Muhammad Kabisi and “other senior officials in Hezbollah´s missile and rocket array”.

Hezbollah has denied Israel’s announcement about the commanders.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi accused Israel of using several US “bunker buster” bombs to strike Beirut on Friday.

“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,” he told a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken appealed again Friday for a ceasefire in Lebanon, saying the diplomatic path remained open, even as Israel ignored calls to stop its strikes targeting Hezbollah.

“The choices that both parties make in the coming days will determine which path this region is on, with profound consequences for its people, now and possibly for years to come,” Blinken told a news conference as he wrapped up a week of talks at the United Nations.