Israel says it has killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in air strike

The Israeli military announced Saturday that an airstrike it launched in Lebanon has killed Hassan Nasrallah, the man who led Hezbollah for more than three decades and built it into a fearsome terrorist organization.

Nasrallah was killed Friday when Israel bombed a complex where Hezbollah leadership was meeting near Beirut, Israeli officials said.

“Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world,” the Israel Defense Forces said on the X social media platform.

Other Hezbollah leaders, including Ali Karki, the commander of its Southern Front, were also killed in the attack, Israel said.

Hezbollah did not immediately confirm the deaths. But the Lebanese Health Ministry said that six people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes.

Iran condemned the bombing, calling it a "blatant war crime," as it vowed to stand by Hezbollah.

“Israel is crossing Iran’s red lines, and the situation will become serious," a senior Iranian official was quoted by NBC as saying.

Nasrallah has led the Iran-backed Hezbollah since 1992 during an era when it engaged in significant hostilities with Israel and conducted terrorist attacks across the globe.

The United States designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 under then President Bill Clinton.

Hezbollah is a “political, military, and terrorist organization capable of conducting attacks worldwide,” the Director of National Intelligence says on its site of designated terrorist organizations.