Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah, aged 64, died after toxic fumes filled his secret bunker following an Israeli airstrike on 27 September in Beirut. It is suggested that the Hezbollah chief may have suffocated after being trapped under rubble as gas from the explosions seeped into the confined space.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah, was killed during a recent Israeli airstrike on September 27.
According to Israeli media, the strike targeted Hezbollah’s central headquarters in Beirut, utilizing 80 tons of “bunker-busting” bombs designed to penetrate fortified structures.
These airstrikes were aimed at the group’s operations in the Dahieh district, where the headquarters is believed to be located underground beneath a residential building.
The attack used a series of timed, chained explosions to penetrate the subterranean bunker, a senior Israeli military official said. “We had real-time intelligence that Nasrallah was gathering with many senior terrorists," Wall Street Journal quoted Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani.
When it was over, a pillar of orange smoke rose above Beirut. And Hassan Nasrallah, the fierce and charismatic Islamist who had led Hezbollah for more than three decades, was dead.
According to Wall Street Journal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where he had given a defiant speech to a largely empty chamber, after many delegates walked out. “We will not accept a terror army perched on our northern border able to perpetrate another Oct 7-style massacre," he said.
An hour after the attack, his office released a photo of him on the phone in New York, giving the greenlight for the strike that killed Hassan Nasrallah.
When security personnel discovered Nasrallah’s body, there were no visible wounds, raising suspicions that he did not die from immediate blast injuries.
Instead, it appears that asphyxiation could have been the primary cause of death, stemming from the toxic environment created by the explosions.
While asphyxiation seems to be the likely cause, some reports indicate that blunt force trauma from the blasts might also have contributed to his death.
At the time of the airstrike, Nasrallah was reportedly preparing for a meeting with Hezbollah leadership, highlighting the sudden and unforeseen nature of the attack.
As of now, Hezbollah has not issued any statements regarding the circumstances of Nasrallah’s death, leaving many questions unanswered about the implications of this significant loss for the militant group and the region.
Late Monday, Israel's military began what it called "limited, localised and targeted raids" against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's border areas.
Its ground forces are backed by fighter jets and artillery fire.
The military formally announced the start of the ground offensive hours after the United States said Israeli forces were conducting limited operations in Lebanon.
The military did not reveal how many soldiers were involved in the incursion, but said its 98th division -- including paratroopers and commando units -- was taking part.
