Israel-Hamas war latest: Israel says it killed Hezbollah's leader in airstrike on Beirut

Smoke rose from Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday morning and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes that it said killed multiple Hezbollah commanders, including leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah did not immediately confirm Israel's claim.

Attacks on Hezbollah targets by fighter jets Friday continued into the early hours Saturday after the army said it told residents to evacuate three buildings it was targeting.

Hours before the strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations, vowing that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue — further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire. Netanyahu abruptly cut his United States visit short and returned to Israel.

More than 720 people have been killed in Lebanon since the conflict escalated Monday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The United Nations says the number of those displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon has more than doubled, with more than 211,000 people now displaced. At least 20 primary health care centers have shut down in hard-hit areas of Lebanon, the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war. Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since Oct. 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.

Here’s the latest:

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said Saturday that it killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah militant group, in a strike in Beirut on Friday.

The military said that it carried out a precise airstrike while Hezbollah leadership met at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.

Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders, were also killed in the attack, the Israeli military said. The Lebanese Health Ministry said that 6 people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes on Friday, which leveled six apartment buildings.

Nasrallah has led Hezbollah for more than three decades. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

Israel maintained a heavy barrage of airstrikes against Hezbollah on Saturday, as Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets toward Israel.

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said it was mobilizing additional reserve soldiers as tensions escalate with Lebanon. The military said Saturday morning it was activating three battalions of reserve soldiers, after earlier sending two brigades to northern Israel earlier in the week to train for a possible ground invasion.

On Saturday morning, the Israeli military carried out several strikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles across northern and central Israel and the Israel-occupied West Bank.

In Beirut’s southern suburbs, smoke rose and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes. Shelters set up in the city center for displaced people were overflowing. Many families slept in public squares and beaches or in their cars. On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.

CAIRO — An Israeli airstrike killed at least two people and wounded 11 others in the central Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, the Awda hospital said.

The strike hit a house late Friday in the camp, according to the hospital which received the casualties in the first hours of Saturday.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the nearly year-long war. Over the past few days, the Israeli military has carried out strikes in northern and central Gaza, which they said were targeting Hamas militants operating from civilian areas.

TEL AVIV — Hezbollah launched more than two dozen projectiles toward Israel Saturday morning, triggering sirens in more than 100 cities and towns across Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military said a surface-to-surface missile was fired from Lebanese territory and fell in an open area in central Israel. Israeli media said the missile fell in the sea.

No injuries or damages were reported, according to Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services.

While Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire since Oct. 8 mostly in the area around the border, in the past weeks, the strikes have targeted much deeper into both countries.

This week, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 720 people in Lebanon, including dozens of women and children, according to Health Ministry statistics. A number of people have been injured in Israel.

BEIRUT — Patients in hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs will be evacuated to medical centers in the capital and the nearby Mount Lebanon region, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

In a statement carried by state news agency early Saturday, the ministry called on hospitals in Beirut and Mount Lebanon to stop receiving cases that can be delayed in order to receive patients evacuating from the hard-hit southern suburb Dahiyeh.

The ministry’s decision came after a night of Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, a predominantly Shiite district. The ministry also called on hospitals and medical centers to care for ill people who fled Dahiyeh overnight as a result of the airstrikes.

BEIRUT — Smoke rose from Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday morning and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes.

Explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, with flames lighting up the pre-dawn darkness. Fire raged from at least one location, and smoke and flames were seen from above Beirut early Saturday. Residents reported jets flying overhead.

In a short statement, the Israeli military described the sites it hit as belonging to Hezbollah. Authorities there did not immediately acknowledge if there were any casualties.

Shelters set up in the city center for people displaced by the onslaught were overflowing. Many families slept in public squares and beaches, or in their cars. On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah missile unit commander and his deputy during a strike in southern Lebanon earlier in the week.

Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that its air forces killed Muhammad Ali Ismail, who it said was responsible for directing “numerous terror attacks” against Israel, including the firing of rockets towards Israeli territory.

The Tuesday strike also killed the commander’s deputy, Hussein Ahmad Ismail, it said.

There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.

BEIRUT — The United Nations said the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah has forced at least 20 primary health care centers to shut down in hard-hit areas of Lebanon.

The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in the latest escalation that began earlier in the week, Israeli airstrikes impacted 25 water facilities, affecting access to clean water for nearly 300,000 in high-risk areas.

The escalation since Sept. 23 has also more than doubled the number of those displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon. There are now over 211,000 people displaced, some 85,000 of them now living in public schools and other shelters spread around the country’s north and east.

A new phase of escalation began Friday, when Israel targeted Hezbollah’s leader in the southern suburb of Beirut, in one of the largest blasts to hit the Lebanese capital in years. The fate of the group’s leader is still unknown. After the initial strike early Friday evening, Israeli warplanes continued to pound buildings and targets in the southern suburb for over six hours. Smoke and balls of fire covered the Beirut skyline for hours.

Flame and smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes hit a residential area that is a Hezbollah stronghold, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2015 file photo, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah addresses a crowd during the holy day of Ashoura, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Palestinian supporters march near the United Nations headquarters at a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Mourners chant slogans as they carry the coffin of Hezbollah drone commander, Mohammed Hussein Surour, during his funeral procession in Beirut's southern suburbs, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Israeli soldiers work on tanks in northern Israel on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Lebanese citizens watch smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

MOSCOW (AP) — Local officials said two bodies were pulled from the rubble Saturday following an explosion at a gas station in Russia’s southern region of Dagestan, bringing the death toll to at least 12.

The explosion on Friday triggered a fire that tore through the service station and its cafeteria on the outskirts of the regional capital, Makhachkala, said Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, adding that two children were among the dead. The fire was later extinguished.

Makhachkala is about 1,600 kilometers (990 miles) south of Moscow.

Regional authorities said a criminal investigation into the cause of the explosion has been opened and that Saturday has been declared a day of mourning in Dagestan.

Last August, a massive explosion at a gas station in Dagestan killed 35 people and injured 115 more.

In this photo released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, first responders work the scene after an explosion killed multiple people at a gas station in the suburbs of Dagestan capital Makhachkala in Russia's Caspian Sea region. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo taken from video released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, firefighters respond after an explosion killed multiple people at a gas station in the suburbs of Dagestan capital Makhachkala in Russia's Caspian Sea region. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo taken from video released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, Russian rescuers carry a casualty after an explosion killed multiple people at a gas station in the suburbs of Dagestan capital Makhachkala in Russia's Caspian Sea region. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, smoke and fire rises after an explosion killed multiple people at a gas station in the suburbs of Dagestan capital Makhachkala in Russia's Caspian Sea region. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)