Hezbollah

An IDF statement on X said the ground operations were carried out based on “precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon.”

A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the positioning of Israeli troops suggested a ground incursion could be imminent.

Several Kashmir leaders cutting across party lines called off their poll campaigns in protest against the killing of Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nazrallah.

The intricate details of Israel's operation to eliminate one of Hezbollah's top leaders underscore the depth of Mossad's intelligence capabilities.

Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh on Friday, leading to massive protests in Kashmir.

Nasrallah was killed in a massive Israeli bombing in southern Beirut on Friday. He led the most powerful of Iran’s Middle East proxies for decades and his death is a potentially crippling setback for Hezbollah as well as a major blow to Iran’s control in the region.

Bunker buster bombs are specialised weapons weighing 2,000 to 4,000 pounds, capable of penetrating hardened targets or deep underground facilities, including military bunkers, up to 30 meters of earth or six meters of reinforced concrete.

The recent strikes in Lebanon and the assassination of Nasrallah are a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and Hezbollah.

Nasrallah, who led the powerful Shi’ite armed group for 32 years, made regional enemies beyond Israel and the West. Gulf countries and the broader Arab League designated his group a ”terrorist organization” in 2016, although the League retracted the designation earlier this year.

The strike, carried out by an Israeli drone, hit a flat in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Kola, close to Beirut airport, belonging to members of the Lebanese Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya, which has historical ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

JDAMs convert a standard unguided bomb using fins and a GPS guidance system into a guided weapon. The U.S. is Israel's longtime ally and biggest arms supplier

"More than 20 other terrorists of varying ranks, who were present at the underground headquarters in Beirut located beneath civilian buildings, and were managing Hezbollah's terrorist operations against the state of Israel, were also eliminated," in Friday's air strike, the military said in a statement that listed some of them.

The spy disclosed Nasrallah's location to Israeli forces, leading to the precision strike that has now sent shockwaves through the Middle East.

At least four Iranian officials told The New York Times that the leadership in the country is divided over the response to the audacious assassination.

While Hezbollah's statement on Saturday confirming Nasrallah's death did not say how exactly he was killed nor when his funeral would be, the two sources said his body had no direct wounds and that it appeared the cause of death was blunt trauma from the force of the blast

"It is the largest displacement movement that may have happened... in Lebanon," Mikati told reporters, after saying up to one million people could be displaced by the Israeli attacks.

This escalation in violence comes as Israel continues its offensive in Lebanon, targeting numerous Hezbollah sites described as "terror targets".

Nasrallah’s death capped a traumatic fortnight for Hezbollah, starting with 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.

Nasrallah’s killing in a command HQ on Friday came barely a week after Israel’s deadly detonation of hundreds of booby-trapped pagers and radios. It was the culmination of a rapid succession of strikes that have eliminated half of Hezbollah’s leadership council and decimated its top military command.

Israel-Hezbollah War Highlights: The Health Ministry of Lebanon has reported that 24 persons were killed in an Israeli attack on the southern city of Ain Deleb