Middle Eastern countries and Hezbollah’s allies in the Tehran-linked ‘Axis of the Resistance’ reacted Saturday to the killing of Hassan Nasrallah after the Lebanon-based armed group confirmed the death of their leader in Israeli attacks.
Military officials in Israel announced Saturday morning that Nasrallah, who headed Hezbollah for more than three decades, was killed Friday evening in bombings at the group’s headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah officially confirmed the death hours later.
Hezbollah
Hezbollah confirmed in a statement that Nasrallah had been killed, saying he had “joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about thirty years.”
The group said he was killed along with other members “after the treacherous Zionist attack on the southern suburbs” of Beirut.
Israel
The Israeli military described the Hezbollah chief as one of Israel’s “greatest enemies of all time.”
Military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “His elimination makes the world a safer place,” but Hagari added that the group’s remaining senior members would still be targeted.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Nasrallah “deserved” to die.
“The elimination of arch-terrorist Nasrallah is one of the most justified counter-terrorism actions Israel has ever taken,” Katz said in a post on social media platform X.
Iran
Iran, which arms and finances Hezbollah, said it would maintain the direction Nasrallah set for the Lebanese group, which has been under cross-border fire with Israeli forces for almost a year.
“The glorious path of the leader of the resistance, Hassan Nasrallah, will continue and his holy goal will be realized in the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem), God willing,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
Iran’s first vice president Mohammad Reza Aref warned Israeli leaders “that the unjust bloodshed… especially of Hezbollah Secretary General Martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will bring about their destruction,” Iranian news agency ISNA quoted Aref as saying. .
Hamas
The Palestinian group Hamas condemned Nasrallah’s killing “in the strongest terms” and criticized the attacks on southern Beirut as “barbaric Zionist aggression and targeting of residential buildings.”
“We consider it a cowardly terrorist act,” the group said in a statement expressing “condolences and solidarity with the brothers in Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon over the martyrdom of… Nasrallah.”
The head of Hezbollah had said his fighters’ rocket fire across the border into Israel was “support” for Hamas.
Yemeni Huthis
Yemen’s Huthi rebels said Nasrallah’s killing would strengthen their resolve to confront their Israeli enemies.
“The martyrdom of… Hassan Nasrallah will increase the flame of sacrifice, the fire of enthusiasm and the power of determination,” the rebel leadership council said in a statement, pledging “the victory and downfall of the Israeli enemy ” to achieve. .
Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned the killing of Hezbollah’s head as a “crime that shows that the Zionist entity has crossed all red lines.”
In a statement, he called the Israeli attacks on South Beirut a “shameful attack” and described Nasrallah as “a martyr in the path of the righteous.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)