AFP, BEIRUT

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, the Lebanese movement said yesterday, dealing a seismic blow to the Iran-backed group that has been engaged in a year of cross-border hostilities with Israel.

Hezbollah’s statement confirms earlier announcements from the Israeli military that they had killed Nasrallah in an air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, in a move that could destabilize Lebanon as a whole.

“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters during a rally to mark Quds Day in Beirut’s southern suburbs on July 25, 2014.

Photo: Reuters

Rarely seen in public, Nasrallah enjoyed cult status among his Shiite Muslim supporters and was the only man in Lebanon with the power to wage war or make peace.

Before his death was confirmed, a source close to Hezbollah said contact with the group’s leader had been “lost” since Friday night.

“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani had announced earlier on X.

Another military spokesman, Captain David Avraham, said the Hezbollah chief had been “eliminated” in Friday night strikes on Beirut.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday condemned what he called Israel’s “short-sighted” policy in the region.

“The massacre of the defenseless people in Lebanon once again … proved the short-sighted and stupid policy of the leaders of the usurping regime,” Khamenei said in a statement, without mentioning Nasrallah’s fate.

Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border attacks a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year.

Israel has over the past few days shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 700 people and displaced about 118,000.

“The message is simple, anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel — we will know how to reach them,” Israeli Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said yesterday.

Israel has raised the prospect of a ground operation against Hezbollah, prompting widespread international concern.

“We must avoid a regional war at all costs,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders, again appealing for a ceasefire.

The Lebanon violence has raised fears of a wider spillover, with Iran-backed militants across the Middle East vowing to keep fighting Israel.

Netanyahu addressed Iran in his UN General Assembly speech, saying: “I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran. If you strike us, we will strike you.”

“There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach,” he said.