Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in Israeli strike

Our live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East has moved here.

Israeli troops gather in northern Israel on Friday.

The US sees the possibility of a limited ground incursion into Lebanon as Israel moves forces to its northern border, according to a senior administration official and a US official. But the officials stressed that Israel does not appear to have made a decision on whether to carry out a ground incursion.

The US assessment was based on the mobilization of Israeli troops and the clearing of areas in what could be preparation for the launching of a ground incursion, one of the officials said.

Earlier Saturday, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner said the military was preparing for the possibility of a ground incursion, but it was only one option being considered. Israel’s stated goal is to return more than 60,000 residents to their homes in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon.

And on Wednesday, Israel’s top general, Herzi Halevi, said the country was preparing for the possible entry of ground forces into Lebanon.

Shortly before news of the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a senior Israeli official said Israel hopes not to carry out a ground incursion into Lebanon.

Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani at the UN headquarters in New York on April 14, 2024.

Iran’s envoy to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to “condemn Israel’s actions in the strongest possible terms.”

The letter comes after an Israeli attack in Beirut on Friday that killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and a key Iran ally.

In a letter to the council’s president on Saturday, Iravani urged members of the Security Council to “take immediate and decisive action to stop Israel’s ongoing aggression” and prevent it from “pushing the entire region into an all-out catastrophe.”

“On 27 September 2024, Israel perpetrated a flagrant act of terrorist aggression against residential areas in Beirut, using US-supplied thousand-pound bunker busters to assassinate Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader,” Iravani said, adding that “many innocent people” and an Iranian general were also killed in the attack.

“For a year now, Israel has been committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Gaza with complete impunity, while the UN Security Council has remained paralyzed due to the United States’ obstruction of an effective decision by that body,” Iravani said.

Iravani also “strongly” warned against “any attack on [Iran’s] diplomatic premises and representatives in violation of the foundational principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises.”

Some background: In April, Iran accused Israel of bombing its embassy complex in Syria. The airstrike destroyed the consulate building in the capital Damascus, killing at least seven officials including Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

In response, Iran launched a brief but unprecedented large-scale drone and missile attack at Israel. No one was killed in Israel by the attack.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks with CNN.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said there was now a “huge opportunity” for Israel to “remove this whole threat” of Hezbollah, and for the Middle East to reject it and other militant Iranian proxies.

The former prime minister called on the people of Lebanon to “rise up” and “take back” their country.

“Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, hijacked your nation 30 years ago, and it’s made everyone’s life miserable. Now is your time to kick them out – don’t let them come back,” he said.

He also framed the current moment, in which Israel says it has weakened Hezbollah, as well as Hamas in Gaza, as an opportunity for Iranian proxies across the region to be “thrown away.”

“For the first time in decades, this is actually possible. It’s achievable but we have to be determined about it,” he said, referring to eliminating Iranian proxies. “It’s time for the whole region to kick out the Iranian regime. It’s not going to happen tomorrow, but it can happen over the next few years,” he said.

Some context: The Israel Defense Forces have said the military is preparing for the possibility of a ground incursion into Lebanon, but it was only one option being considered as Israeli forces have ramped up strikes on Hezbollah targets in the country. Israel’s stated goal is to return more than 60,000 residents to their homes in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon.

The Jordanian Armed Forces says a rocket launched from southern Lebanon landed in an uninhabited desert area of Muwaqqar, east of the capital Amman, on Saturday.

Teams were dispatched to the site, but no casualties or material damage were reported, it said in a statement.

Air defense systems were ready to intercept any projectiles or drones attempting to enter Jordanian airspace, it added.

“The armed forces are continuing to protect the skies, land and borders of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from any danger intended to destabilize its security and stability,” it said.

President Joe Biden disembarks from Air Force One upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on Friday

The death of Hassan Nasrallah has caught President Joe Biden in a bind: While no one in the White House shed any tears for the longtime Hezbollah leader, the Israeli airstrike that took him out has only worsened fears of an escalating conflict, something Biden says he’s actively working to avoid.

In the immediate aftermath of the operation, Biden was quick to alert the public that he hadn’t received any advance warning and wasn’t involved. It was only 24 hours later, after both Israel and Hezbollah had confirmed Nasrallah was killed, that Biden released a carefully worded statement declaring the death a “measure of justice” but repeating that his “aim is to de-escalate.”

For Biden, the moment amounts to another high-tension balancing act — this time, only six weeks before a US presidential election. Already at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the nearly yearlong war in Gaza, the president is now working to calm two fronts at a moment when his influence on Netanyahu’s decision-making appears to be at an all-time low.

Ahead of Friday’s strike, Netanyahu brushed off a ceasefire proposal brokered by the United States and France that called for a 21-day pause in fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border, infuriating American officials who had been led to believe he was on board.

Israel informed the US it was launching its major operation in Beirut only after it was underway — again, to the frustration of some American officials.

In his initial remarks Friday, Biden repeated his fear — which has ebbed and flowed over the course of the past year, but is now at a high point — that a wider conflict could be on the horizon: “I’m always concerned about that,” he said.

Read more about the US president’s response to Nasrallah’s killing here.

People who fled the southern suburb of Beirut amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes take a shade under a billboard advertising in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on Saturday.

Around 1 million people have been displaced by Israeli attacks in Lebanon since Monday, according to the minister in charge of the country’s crisis management center.

“We estimate four times as many have been directly affected and/or displaced outside the shelters,” Yassin, who serves as the country’s environment minister, added.

Some background: Residents on both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border have for months been impacted as Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire, but Lebanese officials say the number of displaced civilians has spiked dramatically during the current period of intensified Israeli bombardment.

One of Israel’s stated war aims is to return tens of thousands of its own displaced civilians to northern Israel.

President Joe Biden said the US is responding to a missile barrage from the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in the Red Sea.

When asked Saturday about the attacks, Biden told reporters, “We’re responding,” as he departed church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

The US Navy intercepted Houthi missiles launched at three warships in the Red Sea. The barrage was launched from the Iranian-backed rebel group toward two guided-missile destroyers and a littoral combat ship as the US vessels traveled north through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, CNN previously reported.

Biden also said Saturday that it is “time for a ceasefire” when asked if a ground incursion by Israeli forces into Lebanon was inevitable.

Remember: The Houthis, like Hezbollah and Hamas, are among the Iranian proxy groups aligned against Israel.

Clashes involving the Iran-backed groups have increased since Hamas’ October 7 attacks and the ensuing Israeli military offensive in Gaza, with the Houthis saying their attacks on vessels in key shipping lanes are made in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah this week has marked another major escalation in the Middle East and deepened fears of a wider regional war involving Iran and the various militant groups.

Smoke rises from a building following an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, on Saturday.

At least 33 people have been killed and 195 injured by Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Saturday, according to the country’s health ministry.

Israel has pounded what it says are Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital of Beirut and elsewhere in the country on Friday and Saturday, including an attack in the capital’s southern suburbs that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Some of the strikes have come in densely populated areas, flattening residential buildings.

Israel has said Hezbollah stores weapons in civilian buildings, which the group denies, and accuses Hezbollah of using residents as “human shields.”

Lebanese civilians say they cannot heed warnings from Israel’s military to avoid places where Hezbollah is operating, because the group is a highly secretive organization. The health ministry says over 1,000 people have been killed since Israeli attacks escalated last week.

CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali contributed reporting to this post.

The Israel Defense Forces says a projectile launched from Lebanon has landed in the West Bank.

The projectile fell in the Mitzpe Hagit area of the occupied territory, according to the IDF. The military said fire and rescue services were working to extinguish fires.

The Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom said it sent teams to three locations and there were no casualties so far.

Sirens had sounded in the West Bank earlier tonight, soon after Hezbollah said it launched long-range missiles from Lebanon toward the Jerusalem area.

Remember: The West Bank is a territory that lies between Israel and Jordan, home to 3.3 million Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation. It is also home to more than 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers, whose presence is considered illegal under international law.