Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is convening a high-level security meeting after Israel launched massive airstrikes in Beirut targeting the leader of Hezbollah, according to The New York Times.
Khamenei will be meeting with members of the Supreme National Security Council at his compound in Iran after Israeli forces launched a major airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut in an apparent attempt to eliminate Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, who helms the Iran-sponsored terrorist group, according to the NYT. It is currently unclear whether Nasrallah was killed in the strikes, which have reportedly killed at least two people and injured dozens more with the toll expected to rise.
Israel reportedly believed Nasrallah to be present at a headquarters facility located beneath buildings in the Lebanese capital city, according to the NYT. The major strikes appear to have essentially flattened at least four buildings, with nearby cars also being damaged or destroyed.
“After almost a year of Israel warning the world and telling them that Hezbollah must be stopped, Israel is doing what every sovereign state in the world would do if they had a terror organization that seeks their destruction on their border,” Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a statement to the NYT. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York City approximately one hour before the explosions rocked Beirut.
Friday’s strikes are among the most powerful and intense directed at Lebanese territory since Hezbollah and Israel began fighting again along the Jewish state’s northern border in the wake of Hamas’ barbaric 10/7 terrorist attacks that hit Israel’s southern regions hard, according to the NYT.
Israel has stepped up its attacks against Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure in recent weeks over the objections of the Biden-Harris administration, which is pushing hard for a ceasefire on the northern front of Israel’s ongoing war against various terrorist groups. Despite Hezbollah’s responsibility for killing hundreds of American troops in a 1983 bombing in Lebanon, the Biden-Harris administration recently decided that it would not share intelligence with Israel as it tries to take out the terrorist group.
