Hezbollah vows to keep fighting after Israel kills leader

Jerusalem/Beirut — Israel said it bombed Houthi targets in Yemen on Sunday, expanding its confrontation with Iran’s allies in the region two days after killing the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an escalating conflict in Lebanon.

The air strikes on Yemen’s port of Hodeidah were in response to Houthi missile attacks on Israel in recent days, Israel said, amid fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and Israel’s main ally the US.

The Houthi-run health ministry said at least four people were killed and 29 wounded.

The strikes took place as Israel attacked more targets in Lebanon, where its intensifying bombardment over two weeks has killed a string of top Hezbollah leaders and driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Israel on Sunday vowed to keep up its assault.

“It has lost its head, and we need to keep hitting Hezbollah hard,” Israeli military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said.

Lebanon’s health ministry claimed Israeli strikes on Sunday had killed 32 people in Ain Deleb in the south and 21 people in Baalbek-Hermel in the east and that 14 medics had been killed in air strikes over the past two days. 

Israeli drones hovered over Beirut overnight and for much of Sunday, with the loud blasts of new strikes echoing around the Lebanese capital.

Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire across the border since the start of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by the October 7 attack by Hamas militants. Yemen’s Houthis have launched sporadic attacks on Israel throughout that time and disrupted Red Sea shipping.

Israel rapidly ramped up its attacks on Hezbollah two weeks ago with the declared goal of making northern areas safe for residents to return to their homes, killing much of the group’s leadership. Israel’s defence minister is now discussing widening the offensive.

Nasrallah’s death dealt a huge blow to the group, which he led for 32 years, and it was followed by new Hezbollah rocket fire on Israel. 

The US has urged a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon, but has also authorised its military to reinforce in the region in a sign of the growing unease.

US President Joe Biden, asked if an all-out war in the Middle East could be avoided, said: “It has to be.”

He described Nasrallah’s death as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the US fully supported Israel’s right to self-defence.

He said he would be talking to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu but did not elaborate.

US senator Mark Kelly, who leads a Senate armed services subcommittee, said the bomb that Israel used to kill Nasrallah was an American-made 900kg guided weapon.

In Iran, which helped create Hezbollah in the early 1980s, senior figures mourned the death of Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander, Abbas Nilforoushan, who was also killed in the attack that killed the Hezbollah leader in Beirut. Tehran called for a UN Security Council meeting on Israel’s actions.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location in Iran after Nasrallah’s killing, sources said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called for decisive action against Israel. In comments carried by state media, he said Lebanon should be supported. “Lebanese fighters should not be left alone in this battle so that the Zionist regime (Israel) does not attack axis of resistance countries one after the other.”

“We cannot accept such actions and they will not be left unanswered. Decisive action is necessary.”

Nasrallah had not only made Hezbollah into a powerful domestic force in Lebanon during his 32 years as leader, but also helped turn it into a key part of Iran’s network of allied groups in the Arab world.

Supporters of the group and other Lebanese who hailed its role fighting Israel, which occupied south Lebanon for years, mourned him on Sunday.

The UN World Food Programme began an emergency operation to provide food for those affected by the conflict.

On Sunday, Israel’s military said the air force had struck dozens of targets in Lebanon including launchers and weapons stores while its navy said it had intercepted eight projectiles coming from the direction of Lebanon and one from the Red Sea.

It said dozens of Israeli aircraft including fighter jets had attacked power plants and Rass Issa and Hodeidah ports, accusing the Houthis of operating “under the direction and funding of Iran” and in co-operation with Iraqi militias.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said: “Our message is clear — for us, no place is too far.”

Nasrallah’s death worsened a traumatic fortnight for Hezbollah, including the detonation of thousands of communications devices used by its members. Israel was widely assumed to have carried out that action but has not confirmed or denied it did.

Hezbollah’s arsenal has long been a point of contention in Lebanon, a country with a history of civil conflict. Hezbollah’s Lebanese critics say the group has unilaterally pulled the country into conflicts and undermined the state.

However, Lebanon’s top Christian cleric, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, said Nasrallah’s killing had “opened a wound in the heart of the Lebanese”. Rai has previously voiced criticism of the Shiite Islamist Hezbollah, accusing it of dragging Lebanon into regional conflicts.

Update: September 29 2024
This story has been updated with new information throughout.

Reuters