Live Updates: Israeli strikes pound Beirut suburb, Nasrallah’s fate unknown
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut on Friday following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow to continue fighting in Lebanon after a US-French plea for a cease-fire.
Israeli media reported that Friday’s strike targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, but his condition is unclear. The strike was carried out after two previous proposals by the Israeli military for operations to assassinate the Hezbollah leader had been rejected by Israel’s security cabinet in the past year, senior Israeli intelligence sources told Al-Monitor. The Israeli military had proposed an initial plan on Oct. 11, 2023, and another over the past week, but a third proposal to take out Nasrallah was the only one accepted by the security cabinet.
Hezbollah's news outlet Al-Manar reported that the "Zionist aggression" had leveled at least four buildings while the Lebanese Ministry of Health said at least six people were killed and 91 wounded, but that number is likely to rise.
Following the attack, the Iranian Embassy in Beirut called the bombing a "dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game." Iranian sources later told The New York Times that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for an emergency meeting at his home compound with Iran's Supreme National Security Council regarding the strike.