Update(1420): The last hour has seen a flurry of contradictory reports concerning who may have been killed in the largescale Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut Friday evening.
Some Israeli reports are claiming Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was killed or at least injured. Other reports claim his top deputy was taken out. At least six buildings were leveled in the attack.
A senior Iranian security officials has told Reuters that Tehran is checking Nasrallah's status. Iran's embassy in Beirut has meanwhile said that the major attack is a 'crime' that deserves 'appropriate punishment'. Hezbollah has been slow to issue a statement, and it is unclear whether the group plans to.
"In an initial toll, Lebanon’s health ministry says two people were killed and 76 others wounded in Israel’s attacks on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh," Al Jazeera reports amid continuing rescue efforts.
Biden: The United States was not aware of the attack & did not participate in it.
Some media sources have speculated that the delayed Hezbollah statement suggests it lost senior leadership:
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Just less than thirty minutes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finished his remarks to the UN General Assembly, the Israeli military (IDF) announced major new airstrikes across southern Lebanon, which has included the most intense attacks to date on Beirut's southern suburbs.
Eyewitness say that shortly before 7pm local time, massive explosions rocked Beirut, shaking windows and with blasts felt for miles. Fox News' chief foreign correspondent is reporting that "Fox News has learned the target of the strike on Beirut was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah." Hezbollah sources have been cited in Sky News as saying Nasrallah is in a safe place.
Breaking reports say that Israeli jets have targeted and struck Hezbollah's main command headquarters.
Al Monitor regional correspondent Joyce Karam writes, "Israeli media and Arabiya reporting that target was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah but reportedly failed. Awaiting confirmations…lot of rumors.
An Israeli official has confirmed that Israel notified the US administration just minutes before the new largescale strikes on Beirut. Netanyahu had reportedly left a post-UN press conference early to attend an urgent security meeting.
Mass casualty event:
Unconfirmed initial videos show a massive attack, with a black smoke cloud rising high into the early evening sky at dusk:
It is highly unlikely that Nasrallah was at the location, as his whereabouts have long been the most tightly guarded secret of Hezbollah. The death toll is as yet unknown, but casualties are likely to be significant:
The attack in Beirut’s Haret Hreik suburb has erased a complete block, around six to nine buildings were either completely or partially destroyed. We are talking about a residential block close to the International airport of Beirut.
For now, we don’t know how many people were killed. But when an attack with such huge explosives, huge rockets is launched towards a residential area, we will expect to see a large number of people killed.
Oil is spiking on the news, given this represents peak escalation after a week of increasingly heavier fighting...
The airstrikes appear to be the most devastating and extensive to date on Beirut. According to initial details via Axios:
- Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar Television reported that four buildings in southern Beirut were struck.
- Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Adm. Daniel Hagari described the attack as a "precise strike on the central HQ of Hezbollah which was intentionally built under residential buildings in Beirut in order to use them as human shields."
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly left a press briefing at the UN after receiving an update from his military adviser.
Images from the scene show a very large attack:
LIVE FEED from Beirut:
developing...
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