Israeli assessments suggest Hezbollah chief Nasrallah was wounded in Beirut strike: Media

By Said Amouri

JERUSALEM (AA) — Israeli media reported Friday that the official assessment of authorities in the country was that Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanese group Hezbollah, was wounded hours earlier in an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburb.

"Assessments by the official level in Israel indicate that Nasrallah was wounded in the attack on the Hezbollah's main headquarters in the southern suburb," broadcaster Channel 12 said.

It added that Israel believes Nasrallah was in the targeted area and that "anyone who was there will find difficulty in getting out alive."

The channel also reported that Israel raised the alert level at all its embassies worldwide following the strike of Beirut.

According to an Anadolu correspondent in Beirut, Israeli warplanes launched some 10 airstrikes on the southern suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold, with a large smoke plume rising over the area.

Shortly after the strikes, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the attack targeted Hezbollah's main headquarters, claiming it was built underneath civilian buildings.

Netanyahu's office released a photo for him inside his office at the UN headquarters in New York while using a landline telephone to approve the strike on Beirut.

An initial toll by Lebanon's Health Ministry said two people were killed, while 76 others were injured as a result of strikes, though the country's Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said information suggested that there were "a large number of victims."

Hezbollah has yet to comment on the attack.

Israel has pounded Lebanon since Monday morning, killing over 700 people and injuring nearly 2,200 others, according to figures released by the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The ministry also said that the death toll in Lebanon since last October is 1,540, in addition to more than 77,000 displaced from southern and eastern parts of the country.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 41,500 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7.

The international community has warned against the strikes on Lebanon, as they raise the specter of turning the Gaza conflict into a regional war.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar