The 2003 Hamas attack killed nine people: The Amal leader, the leader of the Hezbollah militant group, and the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards

There was an Israeli airstrike that killed a family of nine in a Lebanonborder village earlier in the day as Lebanon struggled with a growing death toll and the possibility of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Four hours after the strike, Hezbollah had still not issued any statement referring to it. It announced that it had launched a volley of rockets at the Israeli city of Safed, which it said was in defense of Lebanon and its people.

At the U.N., Netanyahu vowed to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals, further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel shortly after the Hamas attack, saying it was a show of support. Since then, it and the Israeli military have traded fire almost daily, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on both sides of the border.

The Lebanese health ministry announced late Friday that six people had died and more than 90 had been injured by the strikes, but authorities said they were still clearing vast quantities of rubble, meaning those numbers would likely rise.

But in Lebanon and across the region, Nasrallah has had many admirers. A 2020 report by a London-based think tank, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, estimated that Hezbollah had up to 20,000 active fighters. They believe he stood up to the enemies that tried to weaken the Middle East.

Nasrallah was involved in the Shiite political and paramilitary movement, the Amal movement. He was chosen to be Hezbollah’s chief two days after its leader, Sayyed Abbas Musawi, was killed by the Israeli military in 1992.

In 2000, Nasrallah led his group into a war that ended Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon. His son, Hadi, was killed in fighting with the Israeli army in 1997 — the same year the U.S designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

In a statement released by the group, it said that Nasrallah “has joined his fellow martyrs.” The official Iranian news agency reported on Saturday that a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards was also killed alongside Nasrallah.

The leader of Hezbollah said the group’s military commander for the region close to Lebanon’s border with Israel was killed. Hezbollah’s command structure was taken out by Israeli attacks in the past two months, as they continued to launch rockets and missiles across the border.

The scope of the operation is unknown but officials reckon a ground invasion is a possibility to push the group away from the border. Israel moved thousands of troops toward the border.

The United Nations said the fighting has displaced 211,000 people, including 85,000 now staying in public schools and other shelters. Airstrikes have forced 20 primary health care centers to shut down and disrupted access to clean water for nearly 300,000 people.

The site hit Friday evening had not been publicly known as Hezbollah’s main headquarters, though it is located in the group’s “security quarters,” a heavily guarded part of Haret Hreik where it has offices and runs several nearby hospitals.

Israel provided no immediate comment about the type of bomb or how many it used, but the resulting explosion levelled an area greater than a city block. The Israeli army has in its arsenal 2,000-pound, American-made “Bunker Buster” guided bombs designed specifically for hitting subterranean targets.

Footage showed rescue workers clambering over large slabs of concrete, surrounded by high piles of twisted metal and wreckage. One crater was caused when a car toppled into it. A group of people were seen fleeing along a road outside of the district.

The series of blasts at around nightfall reduced six apartment towers to rubble in Haret Hreik, a densely populated, predominantly Shiite district of Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburbs, according to Lebanon’s national news agency. A wall of billowing black and orange smoke rose into the sky as windows were rattled and houses shaken some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Beirut.

News of the blasts came as Netanyahu was briefing reporters after his U.N. address. Netanyahu abruptly ended the briefing when a military aide whispered into his ear.

The Explosions that Killed Hezbollah: Attacks on the Hamas-Israeli War and a Cold War in Lebanon

Teams are combing through the rubble of six buildings in order to find more victims. Israel launched a series of strikes on other areas of the southern suburbs following the initial blast.

At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The blast in Lebanon’s capital was the largest of the year and it seemed like it was going to push the conflict closer to war.

The giant crowd waved their fists in the air and yelled “We will never accept humiliation” as they walked behind the three coffins.

Hezbollah officials and their supporters are defiant. Not long before the explosions Friday evening, thousands gathered in another part of Beirut’s suburbs for the funeral of three Hezbollah members killed in earlier strikes, including the head of the group’s drone unit, Mohammed Surour.

In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, civil defense workers pulled the bodies of two women — 35-year-old Hiba Ataya and her mother Sabah Olyan — from the rubble of a building brought down by a strike.

An Israeli security official said he expects the campaign against Hezbollah would not last for as long as the current war in Gaza, because the military’s goals are much narrower.

Loud music was played across Tel Aviv in celebration of Nasrallah’s death, as the Israeli military wrote on the social media platform X that he would no longer be able to terrorize the world.

Nasrallah’s 32-year tenure atop a group that many nations, including the United States, classify as a terrorist organization was a time when the Hezbollah leader rarely made public appearances.

The End of Israel’s “toolbox”: Video of the “Sunsunset” vs. the “Wavelength” Speech of Halevi

The Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said in the video statement on Saturday that the unprecedented strikes Friday were not the end for Israel’s “toolbox”.