Body of Hezbollah chief Nasrallah recovered in Beirut, reports suggest death from ‘blunt trauma’

The body of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was recovered from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, according to multiple reports.

Medical and security officials reported that his body was found “intact” with no direct injuries, suggesting he died of “blunt trauma” from the explosion, the news agency said Reuters reported. Footage from the scene of the accident shows a huge crater created by the impact in the middle of high-rise buildings in a residential area in Beirut.

Hezbollah members “eliminated”

On Sunday, the Israeli military said the attack that killed the Hezbollah chief also “eliminated” around two dozen other members of the Lebanese armed group. According to the statement, the dead also included Ibrahim Hussein Jazini and Samir Tawfiq Dib, who the military said were “among Nasrallah’s closest confidants” in the Lebanese armed group.

The military has attacked Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in recent days and has also stepped up attacks on the group’s stronghold in southern Beirut. Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death on Saturday and said on Sunday that Ali Karake, the group’s top commander in southern Lebanon, was also killed in Friday’s attack.

Lebanon crisis

After successive Israeli airstrikes over the past two weeks, Lebanese health authorities report that about 1,000 people have died and over 6,000 have been injured in the country.

Multiple reports said the humanitarian crisis had escalated dramatically, with nearly a million people displaced across Lebanon. Nasser Yassin, head of civil protection in Lebanon, noted that the number of displaced people rose from 300,000 to almost a million in just a few hours.

In its first statement after Nasrallah’s death, the Lebanese military called for calm in this “dangerous and delicate phase” of the conflict. Meanwhile, Iran, said to be Hezbollah’s patron, condemned Israel’s actions as a “blatant war crime” and vowed to help Hezbollah regroup and restructure its command.

(With agency input)