Israel has claimed that it eliminated a top intelligence commander of Hezbollah in an airstrike in the southern suburb of Beirut on Saturday. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that Hassan Khalil Yassin, headed a unit in Hezbollah’s intelligence division that was tasked with locating Israeli military and civilian sites in Israel to be targeted.

The military claimed that Yassin worked closely with Hezbollah missile and drone units and was "personally" involved in terror plots that were carried out against civilians and soldiers from the beginning of the war and had also planned additional attacks on the Jewish nation in the coming days. The news of his elimination by Israel comes hours after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut.

"Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorise the world," the IDF said while confirming the news of his death in the strikes.

Protests broke out in Iran following the news of Nasrallah's death. Protesters carried portraits of the killed Hezbollah leader and also chanted slogans like "Revenge," "Down with Israel," and "Down with the US". Iran has also called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council amid Hezbollah's dramatically escalating tensions with Israel. Lebanon declared a three-day mourning period following Nasrallah's death.

Soon after Israel announced Nasrallah's killing, sirens were sounded in several parts of the Jewish nation. A projectile fired by Lebanon crashed into an Israel-occupied West Bank area, but no injuries were reported. Air raid sirens were also sounded on the outskirts of Jerusalem, which the Israeli military said were triggered by "a launch from Lebanon toward Israeli territory".

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described his killing as a "historic turning point", claiming that the country had "settled its account" with a mass murderer responsible for the killings of "countless Israelis" and many American and French citizens.

Notably, Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed 33 people and wounded 195 others on Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said. More than 1,000 people have been killed and more than 6,000 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks in the past two weeks, and about one million Lebanese have been displaced by the strikes.

Source: India Today