Israel unleashes its most powerful attack yet on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, was targeting terror group’s leader
Israel rained down missiles on Hezbollah’s main headquarters in Beirut Friday in its most powerful attack carried out on the Lebanese capital yet — which was understood to be targeting the Iran-backed terror group’s ferocious leader.
It is unclear if the terror chief, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed.
“We don’t know yet. We had intel. This was a precise attack,” a senior Israeli official, who described Nasrallah as the “center” of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” told The Post.
If the targeted strike was successful, the assassination of the Hezbollah commander would be the fourth this week.
The military was still looking into the results of its strike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in an earlier update Friday night.
“We will update as soon as we know. Our strike was very accurate.”
The IDF later confirmed that it “eliminated” Muhammad Ali Ismail, commander of the terror group’s missile unit in southern Lebanon, along with his deputy Hussein Ahmad Ismail and other “commanders and operatives.” Those deaths have not been confirmed by Hezbollah.
Hagari also warned that the Israeli military plans to strike Hezbollah underground armories beneath three buildings in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut imminently and warned residents near the targeted areas to evacuate.
“Move as far away from the buildings as possible before the strike. In a short time we will attack the weapons stored beneath the buildings,” Hagari said in a video statement Friday evening.
“The explosion, because of the missiles, may damage the structure and could potentially cause them to collapse.”
Hagari additionally said that Israeli aircraft are patrolling Lebanese airspace and will not allow “enemy flights with weapons” to land at Beirut Airport, according to the Times of Israel.
“This is a civilian airport, for civilian use, and it must stay that way,” he added.
The massive explosions “leveled six buildings,” causing reverberations as far as 19 miles north of Beirut and sending massive clouds of orange and black smoke billowing into the skies.
At least two people were killed and 76 others injured, but Lebanese officials expect the death toll to soar as recovery efforts continue.
Footage showed rescue workers clambering over large slabs of broken concrete, surrounded by high piles of twisted metal and wreckage. Residents were also seen grabbing their belongings and fleeing the area.
“They are residential buildings. They were filled with people. Whoever is in those buildings is now under the rubble,” Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, told the New York Times.
Hagari described it as a “precise strike” aimed at Hezbollah headquarters, which he claimed were built “under residential buildings in Beirut in order to use them as human shields.”
The attack came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN, vowing to continue Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah.
It also came just one hour after thousands of people attended the funeral of a top Hezbollah commander who was killed the day before.
President Biden told reporters that the US had no advanced warning of the strike.
“We’re gathering information,” the president said.
The strike marks a major escalation in the conflict between the two heavily armed adversaries and has raised fears of an all-out war in the region.
Israel has struck the city four times in the past week, killing at least 700 people and wiping out at least three senior Hezbollah military commanders.
However, this was the largest attack on Beruit since the beginning of fighting nearly a year ago, when the Iran-backed Hamas militant group slaughtered almost 1,200 people in a sneak cross-border attack on Israel.
The Iranian embassy in Beirut called the attack a “bloody massacre” that “changes the rules of the game.”
“Once again, the Israeli regime is committing a bloody massacre, targeting densely populated residential neighborhoods, issuing false justifications in an attempt to cover up its brutal crime and cover the skies with domes,” the embassy said on X.
“There is no doubt that this reprehensible crime and reckless behavior represent a serious escalation that changes the rules of the game, and that its perpetrator will be punished appropriately and disciplined.”
Meanwhile, earlier Friday, an Israeli airstrike killed a family of nine in a Lebanese border village as the IDF carried out dozens of strikes over the course of two hours in the south.
The IDF noted that it is already preparing for a counterattack by Hezbollah.
The scope of Israel’s operation remains unclear, but officials have said a ground invasion to push the militant group away from the border is a possibility. Israel has moved thousands of troops toward the border in preparation.
Netanyahu promised in a UN speech to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals along the Lebanon border, fading hopes for a ceasefire that could head off an all-out regional war.
Under Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
A senior Israeli source described him to The Post as the “main architect” of the destruction of Israel by building a “noose of death” around the country.
The terror chief is also responsible for launching hundreds of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a new weapon that is known for longer range and stronger power — to strike at north Israel in an overnight rocket barrage Sunday.
Friday’s intense escalation by the Jewish state recalls the Israeli airstrikes during the war it fought with Hezbollah in 2006.
Nasrallah, who has led the militant group since 1992, ignited the 34-day war by launching a rocket strike and ground invasion of the border between Lebanon and Israel, leaving multiple Israeli soldiers dead.
The terror group leader justified the bloodbath, claiming Israel failed to follow through on promises to conduct a prisoner swap and instead killed its Lebanese hostages.
