Iran says Hezbollah chief’s death will lead to Israel’s ‘destruction’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejoiced at the news Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is dead calling him “the central engine of Iran’s axis of evil.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken for the first time since Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s confirmed assassination giving a national address on Saturday.

Mr Netanyahu called Nasrallah the “central engine of Iran’s axis of evil.”

“The one who rises to kill you — rise and kill him first,” the Israeli Prime Minister said.

“The State of Israel has eliminated the arch-terrorist Hassan Nasrallah. We have settled accounts with the man responsible for the murder of countless Israelis and many citizens of other nations, including hundreds of Americans.

“Nasrallah was not just another terrorist. He was the terrorist. He was the core, the central engine of Iran’s axis of evil. He and his people were the architects of the plan to destroy Israel.

“He was not only operated by Iran; many times, he operated Iran himself. That is why, at the beginning of the week, I came to the conclusion that the powerful blows the IDF dealt Hezbollah in recent days were not enough.”

Meanwhile Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref has claimed that the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike in the Lebanese capital will bring about Israel’s “destruction”.

“We warn the leaders of the occupying regime that the unjust bloodshed … especially of Hezbollah’s secretary-general, martyr Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, will bring about their destruction,” Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted Aref as saying.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, armed and financed by Iran, confirmed on Saturday that Nasrallah had been killed, after Israel said it had “eliminated” him in an air strike on Hezbollah’s bastion in Beirut’s southern suburbs the previous day.

Lebanese Shiite men wave Hezbollah flags and hold up portraits of the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah. Picture: AFP

Aref said that Iran will “stand by the Islamic resistance”.

President Masoud Pezeshkian offered his condolences over Nasrallah’s death and accused the United States of “complicity” in his killing.

A black flag of mourning was hoisted at the Imam Reza shrine in Iran’s second city of Mashhad, the Tasnim news agency reported.

Mourners gathered waving yellow Hezbollah flags and chanting: “Death to Israel”, state TV footage showed.

The terror group praised Nasrallah’s leadership and vowed to avenge his death as it continued its fight against Israel.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike on the Shiyah neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs. Picture: AFP

“The leadership of Hezbollah pledges to the most supreme, sacred, and dearest martyr in our journey, filled with sacrifices and martyrs, that it will continue its fight to confront the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people,” the statement read.

Earlier, Israel’s military said it had killed Nasrallah in a massive strike on Beirut, in the latest in a string of devastating blows to the Lebanese militant group.

“Hassan Nasrallah … was eliminated by the Israel Defense Forces, together with Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and additional Hezbollah commanders,” the IDF announced.

The late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with a black stripe for mourning is displayed on a television set airing a broadcast from the private Lebanese station NBN in Beirut. Picture: AFP

The confirmation came after the IDF said that based on its “precise intelligence”, Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted a targeted strike on the Central Headquarters of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, which was located underground embedded under a residential building in the area of Dahieh in Beirut.

The strike was conducted while Hezbollah’s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel.

“The IDF will continue operating against anyone who promotes and engages in terrorism against the State of Israel and its people,” the IDF said.

“Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorise the world,” it later tweeted.

Men show photos of Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-general of Hezbollah, as people demonstrate against Israel and the attack on Lebanon at Palestine square in Tehran. Picture: AFP

The Executive Council of the Australian Jewry’s co-CEO Alex Ryvchin tweeted on X that he was a “butcher” who was “long considered untouchable”.

“The fact that its operatives can be blown away through their pagers, their commanders picked off and now their leader obliterated deals a powerful blow to global terrorism. Gratitude to the heroes of the IDF,” he said.

Massive Beirut strike targets Hezbollah HQ

Hezbollah members found and identified Nasrallah’s body on Saturday local time along with the terror group’s southern front commander, Ali Karaki.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime (of Israel).”

This picture shows damaged cars and buildings following an Israeli air strike in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs. Picture: AFP

The news of Nasrallah’s death comes after the IDF also announced new strikes targeting Hezbollah in east Lebanon, and Beirut’s hospitals were also preparing to be evacuated.

Hezbollah had also claimed it had carried out a retaliatory rocket attack on northern Israel.

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Originally published as Iran says Hezbollah chief’s death will lead to Israel’s ‘destruction’