Transcript of Israeli military says Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in strike | BBC News

I can just bring you some breaking news. We have, up until this moment, not known whether those strikes have hit him, but the AFP news agency says, The Israel Army, says Hezbolar Chief, Nasrallah, quote, eliminated in Beirut strike. So that confirmation coming through just in the last few moments as we were taking a look at the history of the man, and Israel just saying via AFP news agency, the army there saying that the Hezbollah chief, Nasrallah, has been, quote, eliminated in a strike in Beirut. Our correspondent, John Donison, is in Jerusalem. John, just getting this breaking news just in the last few minutes there about the leader.

Yeah, and it's not just from AFP. We've just had a statement from the Israeli military put out on X saying, Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world, as they it. So that would seem to be confirmation that the leader of Hezbollah has been killed. Now, throughout this period of escalation over the last few months, I think Israel has been making the calculation that Iran, who, of course, backs Hezbollah, is not ready to get involved directly in this conflict in a full-scale regional war. Well, the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah is going to put that theory to the test.

Just remind us the significance here, the potential implications of this moment, John.

Well, it would be a huge moment. We know that over the last few weeks, Israel has managed to eliminate very senior military commanders within Hezbollah in a series of strikes. But by taking out the leader of the group who's been power of Hezbollah for several decades. I mean, this is a huge moment. As I say, the significance really is where does this lead us? Because Hezbollah, funded by, backed by, set up by Iran to oppose Israel, and now to have its leader taken out, Iran is going to be under enormous pressure to respond.

Okay, John, thank you very much for that. Just want to head straight now live to Beirut. Hugo Bershega is there for us. Hugo, we had these reports that he had been targeted, that Hassan Nasrallah had been targeted, but until a few minutes ago, we had no confirmation as to what had actually happened. Now we have that confirmation from the Israel military that he has been killed.

Exactly. As John was saying, this is a significant moment because Hassan Nasrallah, the powerful leader of Hezbollah, had been leading the group for decades, and it was highly influential and had been leading these attacks, these Hezbollah Hezbollah response to what was happening in Gaza. The fear here in Lebanon has always been that this country would end up being dragged into a conflict with Israel, a wider conflict that could have unpredictable and catastrophic consequences for this country. It seems that this is exactly what's happening now. We're seeing that the Israeli military is carrying out a wide offensive against Hezbollah with widespread air strikes and now killing the head of the group. What the Israeli military will see as a very successful operation in degrading Hezbollah, in weakening Hezbollah, which is a powerful organization. It's always been seen by the Israeli military as much more powerful than Hamas. It is a group that has tens of thousands of rockets, including precision guided missiles that can strike deep inside Israel. The Israeli military has been trying to weaken Hezbollah to destroy some of the infrastructure that has been used by the group. I think the indications are that this operation is going to continue after killing Hassan Nasrallah to try to degrade Hezbollah and to weaken the group so it no longer poses a threat to Israel and all the residents of Northern Israel.

Hugo, just talk us through, if you can, what we know about the specific strikes here that are believed to have killed him.

Well, it was a massive strike last night. It was the most powerful strike that hit Beirut in this conflict. We could actually hear the strike from here in downtown Beirut, which is about six to seven kilometers from Dakhir, which is Hezbollah's stronghold in Southern Beirut. Obviously, there was a lot of panic. There was chaos last night in Dakhir. I was in Dakhir right after the attack, and crowds of people were trying to leave Dakhir. Let me give you a sense of what's happening here right now. This is Martyrs Square in central Beirut, and hundreds of people are here. They spend the night here after leaving Dakhir. As you can see, lots of families here, women, children. A lot of people could only bring some bags and rucksacks with some belongings after fleeing their houses during those Israeli air strikes last night and also overnight. And this morning, there were more warnings by the Israeli military that are urging residents to evacuate certain parts of Dajir, that according to the Israeli military, a near facilities that have been used by Hezbollah, the Israeli military accusing Hezbollah of hiding weapons facilities under civilian buildings. So the indication that these Israeli air strikes are going to continue.

Hezbollah, in a statement overnight, denied that it was using those residential areas to hide weapons. But again, the accusation, the claim by the Israeli military is that Hezbollah has been using the civilian population as human shields. But as you can see, this is the impact on the population. Tents have been set up here. And again, this is putting a lot of pressure on the Lebanese authorities who are struggling willing to cope with the sheer number of casualties from these Israeli air strikes, and also with tens of thousands of people who've been displaced because of this conflict.

Hugo, thank you for that. Just going to go back to John Donison, who's still live for us in Jerusalem. John, we saw a bit of the impact there, Hugo showed us, of these strikes. If you can put into context what this latest development actually means when it comes to Israel's war aims, effectively, its strategic priorities in launching strikes across the border. How does the killing of Hassan Nasrallah fit into that?

Well, it's a huge victory for Israel at this stage. You had Prime Minister Netanyahu telling the UN General Assembly yesterday that he was vowing to defeat Hezbollah, and this is clearly a huge blow to the organization. Now, they will have some succession plan in place, but you have to remember that over the last few weeks and months, Israel has taken out many of these senior figures within Hezbollah, so that succession plan might not be immediately apparent. Now, up until now, the missiles that Hezbollah has been firing over into Israel, and there have been, again, been barrages being fired this morning, have been relatively unsophisticated, I suppose. But Although Hezbollah has lost a lot of its senior leadership, including its leader, Hassan Nasserallah, it still has a huge arsenal of missiles, some of which are much more deadly. It's got guided missiles capable of reaching all parts of Israel. If it chooses to use those, they are going to be much more damaging to Israel. I think there will be a huge welcoming, I think, here in Israel, that Hassan Nasserallah has been killed. The operation in against Hezbollah is much more popular, I suppose. The country is much more united in the need for that than it is, say, for the continued operation in Gaza, where many people feel that the government should have done more to get the hostages out.

There's a huge backing for the operation against Hezbollah. Israel has vowed to get its citizens able to return to the north, some 60,000 Israeli citizens who've not been able to live in their homes for the past year. It will see this as a significant move towards beating Hezbollah.

John, thank you for that. Just to bring you one more line on this, AFP, again, news agency, saying that a source close to Hezbollah says, Contact with Nasrallah was lost since Friday night. So that appears to marry up with the release, the information that we've had from the Israeli military, saying that they have eliminated the threat of Hassan Nasrallah And now AFP quoting a source close to Hezbollah saying, Contact with Nasrallah lost since Friday night.