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Nasrallah Dead? Senior Hezbollah Commanders Were Target of Israeli Strike in Beirut, Israeli Official Says
A series of powerful explosions shook Beirut on Friday (September 27) and thick clouds of smoke rose over the city, Reuters witnesses said, in what Lebanese media said were a series of Israeli airstrikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of the city.
The Israeli military told residents in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate late on Friday, after strikes that it said had targeted Hezbollah‘s central headquarters and with no word hours later from the group on the fate of their head Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The order to evacuate, made by Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee via X, told residents to get at least 500 meters (550 yards) away from three specific buildings in the area. It was the first announcement of its kind for the densely populated neighbourhoods south of Beirut.
A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters Nasrallah was alive. Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters Tehran was checking his status. Hezbollah‘s media office said that there was no truth to any statements surrounding the Israeli strikes, but did not say anything about the fate of the group’s leader.
In New York, a senior Israeli official told reporters that senior Hezbollah commanders were the target of Israel’s strike on the central headquarters on Friday but it was too early to say whether the attack took out Nasrallah.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters at the United Nations that the attack targeted a “meeting of bad people” planning more attacks on Israel.
“When I said this was a meeting of bad actors, Nasrallah is a bad actor. He’s a terrorist. He has the blood on his hands for many Americans, thousands of Israelis, so I think he should be punished for that. I cannot confirm now whether he was at that meeting or not, but when I speak about bad actors, he’s one of them,” Danon said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said there were two dead and 76 wounded from the Israeli strikes, describing it as a preliminary toll.
Iran-backed Hezbollah‘s al-Manar television reported four buildings were destroyed and there were many casualties in the multiple strikes, which marked a major escalation of Israel’s conflict with the heavily armed Hezbollah.
Al-Manar’s live feed showed search and rescue teams scrambling over concrete and protruding metal, with a correspondent for the TV station saying the attack had left several large craters and damaged many surrounding buildings.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a “precise strike” on Hezbollah‘s headquarters, which it said were “embedded under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahiyeh in Beirut”.
Israel has struck the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, four times over the last week, killing at least three senior Hezbollah military commanders.
Friday’s attack was far more powerful, with multiple blasts shaking windows across the city, recalling Israeli airstrikes during a war with Hezbollah in 2006.
In a televised statement, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the central command centre was embedded deep within civilian areas.
The strikes hit Beirut shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue Israel’s attacks on Iranian-backed fighters in Lebanon in a U.N. speech, as hopes faded for a ceasefire to head off all-out regional war.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack showed Israel did not care about global calls for a Lebanon ceasefire.
Iran’s embassy in Lebanon said on X that the strike represented a dangerous game-changing escalation that would “bring its perpetrator an appropriate punishment.”
SHARP ESCALATION IN CONFLICT RAISES CONCERN AT UN
The escalation raised concern at the United Nations, where the annual General Assembly has been meeting this week. Among those voicing concern was France, which earlier in the week proposed a 21-day ceasefire to reduce tensions.
“The large-scale strikes which took place today in the south suburb of Beirut, brought devastation and claimed many casualties. This must be brought to an end immediately,” French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told a Security Council meeting.
At a New York press conference, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We believe the way forward is through diplomacy, not conflict. The path to diplomacy may seem difficult to see at this moment, but it is there, and in our judgment, it is necessary, and we will continue to work intentionally with all parties to urge them to choose that course.”
It was by far the most powerful Israeli attack on Beirut during nearly a year of conflict with Hezbollah. Security sources in Lebanon said the attack targeted an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based.
This week, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 700 people in Lebanon, an escalation that has raised fears of an even more destructive conflict.
In its first statement since the Israeli strike, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at the city of Safed in Israel.
Israeli emergency services said they were treating a woman with minor injuries from the rocket in Safed.
Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu said: “As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely.”
Several delegations walked out as Netanyahu approached the lectern while supporters in the gallery cheered.
Netanyahu’s office said he would cut short his trip to New York and return to Israel on Friday.
The United States did not have advance warning of the Beirut strike and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart as the operation was ongoing, a Pentagon spokesperson said.
Israel says its campaign aims to secure the safe return of thousands of people forced to evacuate in northern Israel because of Hezbollah rocket attacks in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas, which is fighting Israel in Gaza.
This week’s escalation has displaced around 100,000 people in Lebanon, increasing the total number of people uprooted in the country by the conflict to well over 200,000. Israel says Hezbollah rocket attacks during the past year have forced the evacuation of 70,000 Israelis from northern Israel.
UNCONFIRMED REPORTS
Senior Hezbollah commanders were the target of Israel’s strike on the group’s central headquarters in Beirut’s suburbs on Friday but it was too early to say whether the attack took out its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, a senior Israeli official said on Friday.
“I think it’s too early to say, but, you know, it’s a question of time. Sometimes they hide the fact when we succeed,” the official told reporters when asked if the Israeli strike on Friday had killed Nasrallah.
The Israeli military said it had targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah‘s central headquarters in Beirut in an attack that shook the Lebanese capital.
Asked how long it might take to determine the fate of Nasrallah, the senior Israeli official said: “Certainly if he’s alive, you’ll know it very immediately. If he’s dead, it may take some time.”
The official, who was briefing reporters in New York on condition of anonymity, said: “We cannot survive if we don’t stop this and reverse it,” he said, referring to the threat to Israel from Iran-backed militia in the region.
“It’s impossible to reverse it without a general war. That was the assumption, a general war with Hezbollah, which, of course, entails the possibility of a broader war with Iran.”
“The other way to do it was to take him out. That’s the only thing. If you take him out, you not only neutralize, possibly neutralize that front, because nothing else will, but you also break a lynchpin. You break a central axis of the axis.”
Nasrallah became secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992 at just 35, the public face of a once shadowy group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to fight Israeli occupation forces.
Israel killed his predecessor, Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, in a helicopter attack.
The official defended Israel’s action when asked why killing Nasrallah would change the threat from Hezbollah when earlier assassinations of militant leaders had not hobbled their organizations.
“I think it’s different,” the official said. “In many ways he keeps this thing focused, alive and kicking.”
“Some people are irreplaceable. It happens, some people do not have a substitute. That’s one of the cases, there’s no question,” the official said.
“About 10 days ago or two weeks ago, the cabinet made a decision that we cannot have – after a year – Israelis who are basically refugees in their own land,” the official said.
“So we added a formal war aim to bring our people back, to degrade Hezbollah‘s power, to be able to push them back from the border, to destroy the infrastructure along the border, to change the balance of forces.”
“The most important thing that we did was to try to take out about half of the missile and rocket capabilities that he built up over the last 30 years with Iran, and to take it out in a few hours. And we did,” the official said.
“I can’t tell you what will evolve, but I can tell you that this could be a pivot. We don’t seek a broader war. In fact, we seek not to have a broader war and Iran has to consider what it does now,” the official said.
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Federal Judge Dismisses Antisemitism Lawsuit Against Harvard University
Illustrative 373rd Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 23, 2024. Photo: Brian Snyder via Reuters Connect
Harvard University has secured a major legal victory against one of the many lawsuits it has faced over its alleged mismanagement of campus antisemitism after the Oct. 7 massacre.
On Wednesday, a judge dismissed a suit in which ten Harvard alumni alleged that the university had cheapened their degrees during the 2023-2024 academic year by giving anti-Zionist protesters free rein to promote antisemitism, terrorism, and the destruction of Israel.
Filed in a Massachusetts federal court in Feb. 2024, the complaint claimed that Harvard has breached an informal but binding agreement to preserve the institution’s prestige in perpetuity and thereby protect alumni’s investment in a Harvard degree. That compact was violated, the former students alleged, by Harvard’s failing to correct a noxious campus environment and a negative perception of the university which has caused potential employers and prestigious law firms to reject job applicants who carry any affiliation with it.
District Court Judge George O’Toole Jr. — appointed to bench by former president Bill Clinton in 1995 — disagreed with their argument, however, ruling that they presented no evidence which proves that the university’s policies injured them personally.
“The plaintiffs do not currently attend Harvard, nor are they employed by Harvard,” wrote the O’Toole, who is an alumnus of Harvard Law School (HLS). “They graduated from Harvard many years before the central events referred to in the complaint. They are not themselves directly affected by Harvard’s recent administrative actions and/or omissions, and consequently they have no cognizable legal injury that could be redressed through this suit.”
Judge O’Toole Jr. was recently involved in another high profile legal fight. Earlier this month, he temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to restructure federal government by shrinking its workforce, a decision he walked back six days later when he ruled that the parties who challenged the initiative lacked standing. The highly regarded jurist’s career has seen him render rulings on a range of matters, from the criminal investigation of the Boston Marathon Bombing to a defamation suit filed against Barbara Walters by an alleged former associate — a claim he dismissed.
Following the decision, Harvard University said it is “committed to ensuring our Jewish community is embraced, respected, and can thrive at Harvard, and to our efforts to confront antisemitism and all forms of hate.”
Harvard recently settled two antisemitism lawsuits, which were merged by a federal judge in November 2024, in Jan. The agreement, coming one day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump — who vowed to tax the endowments of universities where antisemitism is rampant — prevented a prolonged legal fight that would have been interpreted by the Jewish community as a willful refusal to acknowledge the discrimination to which Jewish students are subjected.
According to details of the settlement disclosed by the university, Harvard will add the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism to its non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies (NDAB), recognize the centrality of Zionism to Jewish identity, and explicitly state that targeting and individual on the basis of their Zionism constitutes a violation of school rules.
Harvard’s legal counsel has more litigation in its future, however, as a case brought by Harvard graduate student Shabbos Kestenbaum, who has made similar claims as the groups which agreed to settle their cases, is still pending. Kestenbaum was a member of one of those groups, Students Against Antisemitism (SAA), but declined to be a party to the settlement due to this belief that a public trial will fully reveal the extent of Harvard’s alleged transgressions and result in its being held accountable for alleged failing .
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
Reporter Debbie Weiss contributed to this story.
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Most Gazans Reject Hamas Rule and Doubt Its Ability to Govern: Poll
Trucks carrying aid move, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hussam Al-Masri
Most Gazans reject Hamas rule post-war and question its ability to govern as tensions rise and efforts continue for the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, according to a new poll.
The Institute for Social and Economic Progress (ISEP), a Palestine-based independent research institute, conducted a representative poll in Gaza on January 22, revealing that only 6% of Gazans prefer Hamas to rule post-war, while just 5.3% would vote for the group in future elections.
As perception of Hamas in the Gaza Strip remains negative, the survey found that 70% of respondents believe the terrorist group lacks the ability to govern, and only 12.4% expect it to remain in power post-war.
Meanwhile, Gazans have shown increased support for Fatah rule, the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s ruling party, after the ceasefire, with 60% favoring its leadership.
Respondents show increased support for Fatah rule in the Gaza Strip post-ceasefire. Photo: Institute for Social and Economic Progress (ISEP)
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the war in Gaza when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
Last month, both sides reached a ceasefire and hostage-release deal brokered by the US, Egypt, and Qatar.
According to ISEP’s recent poll, 67.9% of Gazans credit US President Donald Trump for the success of the ceasefire deal, with Qatar following behind. Most respondents also believe the ceasefire will hold and lead to reconstruction efforts, with over 60% highly confident in its stability and another 30% considering it somewhat secure.
Two in three (67.9%) respondents in the Gaza Strip credit Trump for the success of the ceasefire deal. Photo: Institute for Social and Economic Progress (ISEP)
Under phase one of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas agreed to release 33 Israeli hostages, including eight who are deceased, in exchange for Israel freeing over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many serving multiple life sentences for terrorism-related offenses, and withdrawing troops from some positions in Gaza.
So far, 29 Israeli hostages – plus five Thais – have been released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, with the bodies of four more hostages, initially due to be handed over on Thursday, still to come.
The initial phase of the ceasefire deal is set to end on Saturday, while negotiations for the second phase, aimed at securing the release of remaining hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, are ongoing.
ISEP’s survey found that 89% of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip lack the means to rebuild their lives after the war. Housing support was cited as the most helpful form of aid, with one in three also emphasizing that housing and shelter should be the priority of reconstruction efforts.
One in three (30%) respondents believe that housing and shelter should be the priority of rebuilding efforts. Photo: Institute for Social and Economic Progress (ISEP)
After the war, Gaza’s future remains uncertain, but Israel has ruled out any role for Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, Hamas says it does not necessarily need to stay in power but insists on being consulted.
With the exception of Israel, most Arab states have rejected Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza to rebuild the war-torn enclave, while relocating Palestinians elsewhere during reconstruction efforts. Trump has called on Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states to take in Palestinians from Gaza after nearly 16 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Middle Eastern leaders, expected to bear much of the financial burden of rebuilding Gaza, have struggled to propose their own plan but insist on a role for the Palestinian Authority, while also advocating for a two-state solution.
This week, former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, now the opposition leader in Israel’s parliament, proposed “The Egyptian Solution” as his alternative plan for Gaza’s reconstruction after the war. The proposal, which suggested Egypt administer Gaza for 8-15 years in exchange for canceling its $155 billion external debt, was rejected by Cairo.
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‘The View’ Co-Host Sara Haines Honors Murdered Bibas Family While Whoopi Goldberg Accused of Generalizing Their Murder
Kfir Bibas. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
During Tuesday’s episode of the ABC talk show “The View,” co-host Sara Haines drew attention to murdered Hamas hostages Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas right before co-host Whoopi Goldberg attempted to generalize their barbaric murder and compare it to all human suffering.
“These two little boys, they became, with their mother, kind of the symbol of October 7th,” Haines said, during the Hot Topics segment of the show. She talked about Hamas having a staged ceremony to show off their dead bodies in the Gaza Strip during handing them over to the Red Cross, as part a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, and how the US-designated terrorist organization originally gave the incorrect body to Israel for Shiri, who was 32 at the time of her death.
Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 10 months old, along with their mother were brutally murdered in November 2023 by Hamas terrorists during their captivity. Shiri and her two red-headed young bodies were held hostage in the Gaza Strip for more than 500 days before Hamas returned their bodies to Israel. They were buried on Wednesday. Forensics examination of their bodies revealed that Hamas murdered Ariel and Kfir “were their bare hands” and afterwards “committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities.”
Haines concluded her remarks during Tuesday’s episode of “The View” by acknowledging the 63 hostages who are still in Gaza, after being abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. “There are 60 more remaining hostages in Gaza,” she said. “They’re still there and our hearts are with Israel and the families. This is the most heart-wrenching part for everything.”
Haines’ co-hosts on “The View” include Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin.
After Haines concluded talking about the Bibas family and the remaining hostages, Goldberg made comments that equated the savage murder of the Bibas family by a worldwide recognized terrorist organization to suffering people are experiencing around the world, including in Russia. Her remarks, and the fact that she draw attention away from the murder of the Bibas family, have sparked outrage from Israel supporters, including celebrities, and pro-Israel organizations.
“There is nothing positive about any of this,” Goldberg said. “For everyone who’s affecting, our hearts should go out. All the families, all the children. This is horrifying. I find it so shocking that when we talk about things like Hamas, and I look at where we’re putting our energy, I think – well, who are the bad guys now?”
Her fellow co-hosts all replied at the same time saying Hamas is “the bad guy.” Goldberg quickly cut in and said, “Hamas is the bad guy, but what about Russia? Is Russia not bad with all they’ve been doing?” Hostin then reminded her co-hosts that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against him, which the US House of Representatives has condemned.
“But there’s no equivocation of Netanyahu and Hamas,” Griffin reminded the ladies. “Hamas needs to be destroyed.”
Goldberg ended the Hot Topics segment of the show saying: “My point is, when do we stop saying, ‘It’s these folks, or these folks.’ When do we say, ‘Here’s the enemy. This is what the enemy does. This is what the enemy does to children in Africa, all over the world, because they’re the enemy.’ That’s what the enemies do. And why are we supportive of enemies? What’s happening? I don’t always get it right and they don’t always get it right. But we’ll figure out the answers at some point, I’m sure.”
Creative Community for Peace, a pro-Israel entertaining industry organization, said it is “deeply troubled” by Goldberg’s remarks. Others called her “despicable” for comparing “the depravity of Hamas to Russia,” for “marginalizing” the murder of the Bibas family, and needing to “generalize and universalize Jewish suffering,” as said by comedian and musician Ami Kozak. American actress Patricia Heaton, who is best known for her role on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” also blasted Goldberg in a post on X.
“Why do people like Whoopi seem to need to neutralize the murder of the Shiri, Ariel and Kefir [sic] by claiming ‘this is about everyone who is affected,’” Heaton wrote. “Isn’t that what you railed against when people said ‘all lives matter’ in response to BLM [Black Lives Matter]?” “Why do they have such a difficult time acknowledging that these babies were strangled to death because they are Jewish? It’s not the same as Gazan casualties of war. Not at all.”
“How dare you both-sides the Bibas family and use them as a prop in your dangerous propaganda narrative,” Jewish award-winning radio talk show host and columnist Dahlia Kurtz wrote in a social media post addressed to Goldberg. “A mother and her babies were — barbarically — executed by a terror organization. Then held in captivity for ransom. This while her husband and the babies’ father was held hostage — and savagely tortured. Three generations of the innocent Bibas family were murdered. Plus their beloved dog. This is not about everyone’s suffering. This is about the Bibas family.”
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