Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli attack

BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese Hezbollah group confirmed Saturday that its leader and one of its founding members, Hassan Nasrallahwas killed in an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut.

The killing of the powerful militant group's longtime leader sent shockwaves across Lebanon and the Middle East, where he has been a dominant political and military figure for more than three decades.

Nasrallah, which Israel has linked to numerous deadly attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets, has been on Israel's hit list for decades. His assassination is by far Israel's largest and most consequential targeted killing in years and is leading to a significant escalation of the war in the Middle East. Hezbollah is supported by Iran, Israel's main regional rival.

The Israeli military said it was carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leaders met at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.

Immediately after Hezbollah's confirmation, people in Beirut and across Lebanon began shooting into the air to mourn Nasrallah's death.

“I wish they were our children, not you, Sayyid!” said one woman, using an honorific for Nasrallah, as she hugged her baby in the western city of Baabda.

“We don’t believe he will be killed,” a woman dressed in black told al-Manar TV in Bekaa, western Lebanon, in tears. “We don't do that. We left our homes and came here for him and the resistance.”

In his first public comments since the killing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's attack on Nasrallah was “an essential prerequisite for achieving the goals we have set.”

“He was not another terrorist. He was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said killing Nasrallah would help return displaced Israelis to their homes in the north and would pressure Hamas to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza. However, given the grave threat of retaliation, he warned that the coming days would bring “significant challenges” and warned Iran against attempting an attack.

“There is no place in Iran or the Middle East that Israel’s long arm cannot reach. And today you know how very true that is,” he said.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said six people were killed and 91 injured in Friday's strikes, which leveled six homes. Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah's southern front, and other commanders were also killed, the Israeli military said.

A Hezbollah statement said Nasrallah – who led the group for more than three decades – “has joined his fellow martyrs.” The group vowed to “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.”

Cross-border aggression

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in support of the Gaza Strip on October 8, a day after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 in strikes.

Israel has vowed to increase pressure on Hezbollah until it stops its attacks, which have driven tens of thousands of Israelis from communities near the Lebanese border. Recent fighting has also displaced more than 200,000 Lebanese over the past week, according to the United Nations.

Earlier this month, thousands of explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies The explosive device used by Hezbollah exploded, killing dozens of people and maiming thousands, including many civilians. Israel is widely believed to be behind the attack. In addition to the attack that killed Nasrallah, Israel has killed several other senior Hezbollah commanders in Beirut, particularly in the last two weeks.

Smoke rose and streets were empty in Beirut's southern suburbs on Saturday after the area was hit by heavy Israeli airstrikes overnight. The emergency shelters were overcrowded with displaced people. Many families slept in public places, on beaches or in their cars. On the roads leading into the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen fleeing on foot, clutching small children and whatever belongings they could carry.

Hezbollah's allies mourn

Palestinian militant group Hamas expressed condolences to its ally Hezbollah, saying: “Assassinations will only increase the resolve and resolve of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine.”

Iran's Supreme Leader announced five days of public mourning and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Nasrallah “the standard bearer of resistance” in the region.

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Tehran, waving Hezbollah flags and chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to the murderer Netanyahu.”

Iran's U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani wrote a letter to the heads of the United Nations and Security Council on Saturday, calling for an extraordinary council meeting over the attack that killed Nasrallah.

“Using the thousand-pound bunker busters supplied by the United States,” he wrote, Israel killed Nasrallah and Iranian General Abbas Nilforushan, among others.

He warned Israel not to attack its diplomatic or consular premises or its representatives. “Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent rights under international law and take all measures to defend its vital national and security interests,” Iravani wrote.

Thomas Juneau, a professor at the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, said Iran will face significant pressure to respond to Nasrallah's killing without escalating violence in the region.

“Iran understands that its military options are limited given the conventional military superiority of Israel and the United States,” Juneau told The Associated Press.

Israel vows to continue attacks on Hezbollah

Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Saturday that Nasrallah's assassination was “not the end of our toolbox” and suggested more attacks were planned. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called it “the most important targeted attack since the founding of the State of Israel.” Late Saturday, Gallant's office said he was meeting with senior army commanders to discuss expanding military activity along Israel's northern front.

The military announced Saturday that it would mobilize three additional battalions of reserve soldiers to serve across the country. It has already sent two brigades to northern Israel to prepare for a possible ground invasion.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Israel had inflicted serious damage on Hezbollah's capabilities over the past week by targeting immediate threats and strategic weapons such as larger guided missiles. However, he said that much of Hezbollah's arsenal was intact and that Israel would continue to target the group.

Shortly after Netanyahu returned from a trip to the United States, air raid sirens wailed across central Israel on Saturday afternoon, including at Tel Aviv International Airport

The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen. Houthi rebels based in Yemen later said they were behind the attack on Ben-Gurion Airport.

The Israeli military updated guidelines for Israeli citizens and canceled gatherings of more than 1,000 people due to the threat.

About 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes along the Lebanese border for almost a year. This month, the Israeli government said to stop Hezbollah's attacks in the north of the country Enabling residents to return to their homes is an official goal.

Ongoing strikes on both sides of the border

On Saturday morning, the Israeli military carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon in the Bekaa Valley, including against an anti-ship missile depot in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. Israel said the rockets were stored under civilian homes. Hezbollah fired dozens of projectiles across northern and central Israel and deep into the Israeli-occupied West Bank, damaging some buildings in the northern city of Safed.

The Israeli army again warned Lebanese residents to stay away from Hezbollah combat equipment and facilities, including in the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon. The US State Department has issued a warning urging American citizens to leave the country.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon killed a total of 1,030 people in less than two weeks, including 156 women and 87 children, the country's health minister said on Saturday.

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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell, Kareem Chehayeb and Ahmad Mousa in Beirut; Lujain Jo in Baabda, Lebanon; Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv; Nasser Karimi and Mehdi Fattahi in Tehran, Iran; Eleanor H. Reich in Washington; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Michael Weissenstein in New York contributed to this report.