Israel Lebanon latest: Iran vows to avenge Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s death

The British government has asked Britons in Lebanon to “leave now” amid concerns over the escalating situation in the Middle East following the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The Foreign Office had asked Britons to leave Lebanon last week and moved additional troops to Cyprus to aid evacuations.

The government has been working to increase the number of commercial flights available for British nationals, The Guardian reported.

“Our advice is clear, British nationals should register their presence, book the first available flight and leave now,” a spokesperson told the newspaper.

“We have worked with partners to increase flights and secure seats for British nationals to leave and have also sent a rapid deployment team to bolster the efforts of our embassy in supporting British nationals.

“We know it’s a distressing time for British nationals and all people in Lebanon, which is why we are doing everything we can to help.”

Russia’s foreign minister claimed a “lot of people” are of the opinion that Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was aimed at provoking Iran and the US “to unleash a full-blown war in the entire region”.

Sergey Lavrov told reporters that the killing is “not simply a political assassination. It’s very cynical as an act”.

Hezbollah confirmed yesterday that Nasrallah, its leader and one of its founders, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut.

“I think — well not even I think but a lot of people say — that Israel wants to create the grounds to drag the US directly into this, and so to create these grounds is trying to provoke Iran,” Mr Lavrov said.

“The Iran leadership, I think, are behaving extremely responsibly. And this is necessary. This is something that we should take due note of,” he said.

The most hopeful prospect is that Israel’s democracy allows for the peaceful transition to a different strategy:

The Israeli military today said it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including launchers that were aimed toward Israeli territory.

After Hassan Nasrallah’s killing, Hezbollah faces the enormous challenge of plugging the infiltration in its ranks that allowed Israel to destroy weapons sites, booby-trap its communications and assassinate the veteran leader, whose whereabouts had been a closely guarded secret.

Israel’s deadly detonation of hundreds of booby-trapped pagers and radios was the culmination of a rapid succession of strikes that have killed half of Hezbollah’s leadership council and decimated its top military command.

One source familiar with Israeli thinking told Reuters, less than 24 hours before the strike, that Israel has spent 20 years focusing intelligence efforts on Hezbollah and could hit Nasrallah when it wanted, including in the headquarters.

The person called the intelligence “brilliant”.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close circle of ministers authorised the attack on Wednesday, Israeli officials said. The attack took place while Netanyahu was in New York.

Nasrallah had avoided public appearances since 2006.

“This is a massive blow and intelligence failure for Hezbollah,” said Magnus Ranstorp, a veteran Hezbollah expert at the Swedish Defence University. “They knew that he was meeting. He was meeting with other commanders. And they just went for him.”

Small-scale “border movements” into Lebanon may have begun for a limited ground operation against Hezbollah, according to reports.

While Israel has not confirmed a possible launch of a ground operation but is prepared for one, ABC News reported citing US officials.

Officials in America received a “few minutes notice” at best, before Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination on Friday, the officials added.

President Joe Biden called the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah “a measure of justice” for the thousands of civilians that he and the terrorist organization killed over the last three decades.

“Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror,” Biden said in a statement.

“His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.”

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah “will not go unavenged” after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

Khamenei announced five days of public mourning for Nasrallah as he remembered the Hezbollah leader as the “flag-bearer of resistance” in the region.

Israel yesterday said it was on “high alert” for possible retaliation from the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance” in the Middle East.

“Our forces are on high alert, our intelligence is up,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told reporters.

Similarly, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the coming days would bring “significant challenges” and warned Iran against trying to strike.

Iran’s Ayatollah urged Muslims across the world to stand by Hezbollah “with their resources and help”. “The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” he said.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tehran, waving Hezbollah flags and chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to Netanyahu the murderer”.

Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani wrote to the heads of the UN and the Security Council yesterday calling for an emergency council meeting over the attack.

He warned Israel not to attack any of its diplomatic or consular premises, or its representatives.

A total of 1,030 people, including 156 women and 87 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon in less than two weeks, the country’s health minister said.

The Israeli army again warned Lebanese residents to stay away from Hezbollah combat equipment and facilities, including in the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon.

The US state department issued an alert urging American citizens to leave the country.

The Israeli military yesterday carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, including targeting a storage facility for anti-ship missiles in Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said targeting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was “an essential condition to achieving the goals we set”.

Hezbollah confirmed yesterday that one of its founding members, who has been linked by Israel to attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets, had been killed in an airstrike in southern Beirut.

In his first public remarks since the killing on Friday, Mr Netanyahu said: “He wasn’t another terrorist. He was the terrorist.”He said Nasrallah’s killing would help bring displaced Israelis back to their homes in the north and would pressure Hamas to free Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

With the threat of retaliation high, he warned the coming days would bring “significant challenges” and warned Iran against trying to strike.

“There is no place in Iran or in the Middle East that Israel’s long arm cannot reach. And today you know how much that is true,” he said.