Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, the Lebanese movement said yesterday, dealing a seismic blow to the Iran-backed group that has been engaged in a year of cross-border hostilities with Israel.
Hezbollah’s statement confirms earlier announcements from the Israeli military that they had killed Nasrallah in an air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, in a move that could destabilize Lebanon as a whole.
“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
Rarely seen in public, Nasrallah enjoyed cult status among his Shiite Muslim supporters and was the only man in Lebanon with the power to wage war or make peace.
Before his death was confirmed, a source close to Hezbollah said contact with the group’s leader had been “lost” since Friday night.
“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani had announced earlier on X.
Another military spokesman, Captain David Avraham, said the Hezbollah chief had been “eliminated” in Friday night strikes on Beirut.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday condemned what he called Israel’s “short-sighted” policy in the region.
“The massacre of the defenseless people in Lebanon once again ... proved the short-sighted and stupid policy of the leaders of the usurping regime,” Khamenei said in a statement, without mentioning Nasrallah’s fate.
Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border attacks a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
Israel has over the past few days shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 700 people and displaced about 118,000.
“The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel — we will know how to reach them,” Israeli Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said yesterday.
Israel has raised the prospect of a ground operation against Hezbollah, prompting widespread international concern.
“We must avoid a regional war at all costs,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders, again appealing for a ceasefire.
The Lebanon violence has raised fears of a wider spillover, with Iran-backed militants across the Middle East vowing to keep fighting Israel.
Netanyahu addressed Iran in his UN General Assembly speech, saying: “I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran. If you strike us, we will strike you.”
“There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach,” he said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
DETERRENCE EFFORTS: Washington and partners hope demonstrations of force would convince Beijing that military action against Taiwan would carry high costs The US is considering using HMAS Stirling in Western Australia as a forward base to strengthen its naval posture in a potential conflict with China, particularly over Taiwan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. As part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, Washington plans to deploy up to four nuclear-powered submarines at Stirling starting in 2027, providing a base near potential hot spots such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. The move also aims to enhance military integration with Pacific allies under the Australia-UK-US trilateral security partnership, the report said. Currently, US submarines operate from Guam, but the island could
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Opposition parties not passing defense funding harms Taiwan’s national security, two US senators said separately in rare public criticism. “I am disappointed to see Taiwan’s opposition parties in parliament [the legislature] slash President [William] Lai’s (賴清德) defense budget so dramatically,” Roger Wicker, a Republican who chairs the US Senate Armed Forces Committee, said on social media. “The original proposal funded urgently needed weapons systems. Taiwan’s parliament should reconsider — especially with rising Chinese threats,” he added. Wicker’s post linked to an article published by Bloomberg that said that the two opposition parties’ move was “potentially jeopardizing the purchases of billions of dollars of
RSS