Body Of Hezbollah Chief Nasrallah Recovered In Beirut, Reports Indicate Death From ‘Blunt Trauma’ – News18

The body of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has been recovered from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, several reports said.

Medical and security officials reported that his body was found “intact” with no direct wounds, suggesting he died from “blunt trauma” caused by the explosion, news agency Reuters reported. Footage from the scene shows a massive crater left by the strike amid high-rise buildings in a residential area in Beirut.

The Israeli military said on Sunday the strike that killed Hezbollah chief also “eliminated” around two dozen other members of the Lebanese armed group. The dead included, according to the statement, Ibrahim Hussein Jazini and Samir Tawfiq Dib, who the military said were “among Nasrallah’s closest associates” in the Lebanese armed group.

The military in recent days has pounded Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and also hit the group’s stronghold in southern Beirut with intensified strikes. Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death on Saturday, and on Sunday it said Ali Karake, the group’s top commander in southern Lebanon, was also killed in the Friday attack.

Hezbollah officially labelled Nasrallah a “martyr” in a statement confirming his death on Saturday. The airstrike, which targeted a gathering of senior Hezbollah officials, also resulted in the death of Ali Karaki, another high-ranking member of the group. After back-to-back Israeli airstrikes over the past two weeks, Lebanese health officials report that some 1,000 people have died and over 6,000 have been injured.

Several reports said that the humanitarian crisis has escalated dramatically, with nearly one million people displaced across Lebanon. Nasser Yassin, head of emergency disaster management in Lebanon, noted that the number of displaced individuals surged from 300,000 to almost one million within hours.

Lebanon already hosts a large refugee population, including 1.5 million Syrians and 2,500 Palestinians. In its first statement following Nasrallah’s death, the Lebanese military called for calm during this “dangerous and delicate stage” of conflict. Meanwhile, Iran, who is said to be the patron of Hezbollah, condemned Israel’s actions as a “blatant war crime” and vowed to support Hezbollah in regrouping and restructuring its command.

(With agency inputs)