The Israeli military struck Hezbollah's central headquarters outside Beirut on Friday evening, in an apparent targeting of the militant group's long-serving chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
It was not immediately clear whether Nasrallah was in the compound at the time of the airstrike, which leveled several residential buildings in the Dahiyeh neighborhood of the Lebanese capital. The Israeli Defense Forces said that those buildings were on top of Hezbollah's main command post.
The attack was a "precise strike on the central HQ of Hezbollah, which was intentionally built under residential buildings in Beirut in order to use them as human shields," according to IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
The strike came moments after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a defiant address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, telling the assembled delegates that Israel would continue fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both of those militant groups are Iranian proxies.
"For too long the world has appeased Iran," Netanyahu said. "That appeasement must end and that appeasement must end now."
The prime minister was expected to depart New York on Friday, earlier than planned, to return to Israel.
Photos and video from the scene of the strike showed black smoke rising above downtown Beirut and major devastation on the ground, including a large crater and mangled cars. Witnesses in Beirut told the Reuters news agency they heard multiple blasts.
A source "close to Hezbollah" told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive, while Iranian state media also reported he was safe.
Axios, citing senior Israeli officials, reported that there were "indications" that Nasrallah was inside the compound when it was hit, and that anyone in there would have had a "very small chance of getting out alive," given the scale of the damage.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called an emergency meeting of his national security council, the New York Times reported, citing Iranian officials.
Newsweek has reached out to sources within Hezbollah for comment.
The Iranian embassy in Lebanon called the strike "a reprehensible crime and reckless behavior" that constitutes "a dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game."
The Friday evening airstrikes — the largest since the last Israel-Lebanon war in 2006 — came as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah were already boiling over. The group has been launching rockets over the Lebanon-Israel border for nearly a year in solidarity with Hamas, saying it would continue to do so until Israel pulled out of Gaza.
Israel, meanwhile, is believed to be behind a recent sophisticated covert operation that targeted the pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah militants across Lebanon and parts of Syria. Hundreds of those devices exploded almost simultaneously, killing dozens and wounding hundreds more. The Lebanese health ministry said civilians were among those casualties.
Nasrallah responded to those coordinated attacks saying Israel had crossed a "red line" as he vowed to continue Hezbollah's border attacks, which have led to the displacement of thousands of Israelis.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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