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IDF: Hassan Nasrallah Is Dead
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen addressing supporters, in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Reuters.
JNS.org – Terror master Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israel Defense Forces strike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, the military confirmed on Saturday.
There was no immediate official reaction from the Lebanese government, but a source close to Hezbollah said contact with him had been “lost.”
Several hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death.
The Israeli Air Force conducted the massive airstrike targeting the headquarters, built underground beneath residential buildings, in the heart of the Dahiyeh district of the Lebanese capital on Friday evening.
The operation to assassinate Nasrallah was named “New Order.”
The commander of Hezbollah’s terror activities in Southern Lebanon, Ali Karaki, was also killed in the attack. Karaki, the Iranian proxy’s No. 3 terrorist, had narrowly evaded an Israeli targeted killing attempt earlier this week.
On Saturday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was transferred to a location with heightened security, Reuters reported, citing two regional officials.
Beforehand, Khamenei called on Muslims to “stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime [of Israel],” according to a statement carried by Iranian state media.
“The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” he added.
Khamenei convened on Friday night an emergency session of the Supreme National Security Council to discuss a response, according to The New York Times.
Iran’s embassy in Lebanon condemned the strike on Nasrallah and vowed to “bring its perpetrator an appropriate punishment.
“This reprehensible crime … represents a dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game,” stated the mission.
In a separate strike, the IDF killed Mohammed Ismail, the commander of Hezbollah’s missile array in Southern Lebanon, the military announced on Saturday. He was responsible for numerous attacks, including Wednesday’s ballistic missile launch at Tel Aviv.
“The is not the end of the tools in the toolbox,” said IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi of the targeted killings. “The message is simple, to anyone who threatens the citizens of the State of Israel, we will know how to get to them.”
War against Hezbollah rages
Earlier on Saturday, the IDF called on Lebanese civilians to evacuate from several buildings in Dahiyeh, a known Hezbollah stronghold, as the Israeli Air Force carried out waves of strikes across Lebanon.
Among the targets were weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, along with a Hezbollah command center, in Beirut, as well as other terrorist infrastructure in the Beqaa Valley in the country’s east.
“The terrorist organization Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah joined the war against the State of Israel on Oct. 8. Since then, Hezbollah has continued its attacks against the citizens of the State of Israel, and has dragged the State of Lebanon and the entire region into escalation,” the IDF said in a statement released on Saturday.
“The IDF will continue to harm anyone who promotes and engages in terrorism against the citizens of the State of Israel,” it added.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah continued on Saturday to pummel the Jewish state with rocket fire, with a surface-to-surface missile launched from Lebanon hitting an open area in central Israel, the IDF said.
In accordance with protocol, air raid sirens were not triggered, as the projectile was not headed for populated areas.
Hezbollah also fired a volley of Fadi-1 rockets at Kibbutz Kabri in the Western Galilee, as well 10 rockets towards Safed in the Eastern Galilee.
Additionally, a long-range missile struck in Samaria, reportedly hitting a Palestinian home in Hawara, near Nablus.
There were no reports of injuries.
U.S.-led ceasefire push
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who delivered a defiant speech on Friday morning in New York City during the 79th Session of the U.N. General Assembly, cut his trip short and was en route back to Israel, making the exceedingly rare decision to fly on Shabbat.
Netanyahu has urged Lebanese citizens to rise up against Hezbollah while warning that the military would not hesitate to strike anywhere in Lebanon.
“I say to the people of Lebanon: Our war is not with you. Our war is with Hezbollah. Nasrallah is leading you to the edge of the abyss,” said Netanyahu on Tuesday after a visit to an intelligence base somewhere in Israel.
“I told you to evacuate homes in which there is a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage,” he said. “Whoever has a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage will no longer have a home.”
Nevertheless, Netanyahu said on Thursday that he “shares the aim” of the U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the intensifying war with Hezbollah, speaking hours after insisting that the IDF would not back down amid reports of an imminent ceasefire.
The United States, Australia, Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar called jointly on Wednesday night for an “immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement.”
Before the statement went out, U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron stated that “it is time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes.”
Neither statement mentioned Hezbollah.
IDF in escalation mode
On Thursday, the IDF killed the head of Hezbollah’s aerial forces in an airstrike in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district. Senior terrorist Muhammad Hossein Sarur commanded numerous attacks with “cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles launched at the Israeli home front,” the IDF said.
On Tuesday, Israeli Air Force jets carried out another strike in Dahiyeh, killing Ibrahim Qubaisi, the commander of Hezbollah’s missile array.
Last week, the IDF took credit for strike in Dahiyeh that killed more than a dozen senior Hezbollah terrorists, including Ibrahim Aqil, whom Washington also wanted for his involvement in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
Jerusalem has escalated strikes on Hezbollah since adding the return of evacuated Israeli civilians to the north as an official war goal on Sept. 17.
Hezbollah has attacked Israel nearly daily since Oct. 8, firing some 9,000 rockets, missiles and drones. The attacks have killed more than 40 people and caused widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain displaced internally due to the violence.
The post IDF: Hassan Nasrallah Is Dead first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
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US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
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US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.