The body of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been recovered from where he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday, sources have said.
Nasrallah‘s body was found “intact” in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh – where senior members of the militant group were gathered, according to a medical and security source.
He was found with no direct wounds and is believed to have died from the blunt trauma of the explosion.
Lebanon ‘on verge of catastrophe’; follow Middle East latest
Hezbollah described him as a “martyr” in the statement confirming his death on Saturday.
On Sunday the group confirmed senior Hezbollah official Ali Karaki was also killed in Friday’s strike.
Footage from the site – a residential area of the Lebanese capital – shows a huge crater between high-rise buildings.
The site of Israel’s Friday airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Pic: Reuters
Damage at the site of Friday’s airstrike in Beirut. Pic: Reuters
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Meanwhile, both Israel and Hezbollah continued to launch attacks on Sunday.
Rockets were fired into Israel but no deaths or injuries have been reported.
Eleven people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the northeastern Lebanese village of al Ain on Sunday, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.
Six of the bodies were recovered but rescuers are still searching the rubble of the destroyed home for the remaining five, it added.
The Israeli military claims to have struck dozens more Hezbollah targets in the past 12 hours, including one that killed Nabil Kaouk – another of the group’s senior leaders. This has not been confirmed from Hezbollah’s side, however.
Thirty-three people were killed and a further 195 injured in attacks on Saturday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
They are among roughly 1,000 killed and 6,000 wounded as a result of Israeli airstrikes in the past two weeks, it says.
One million displaced
The number of displaced people across the country has increased from 300,000 to almost a million in a matter of hours, Nasser Yassin, Lebanon’s head of emergency disaster management, said.
Lebanon has one of the largest refugee populations per capita in the world – with 1.5 million Syrian refugees and 2,500 Palestinians – to a population of around 3.5 million.
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Sky’s Alex Crawford outside the main mosque in Beirut where families have been displaced
Displaced people in southern Beirut following strikes this weekend. Pic: Reuters
In its first statement since Nasrallah’s death, the Lebanese military called for calm at “this dangerous and delicate stage” of the conflict.
Tanks have gathered on the Israeli side of the border – the strongest suggestion yet that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing for a ground invasion.
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Israeli military station themselves at Lebanese border
Israel says recent attacks are to secure northern areas of the country from Hezbollah rocket fire – and allow Israelis displaced since the Hamas incursion of 7 October to return home.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has vowed to “eliminate the commanders of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation and to act against anyone who threatens the citizens of the state of Israel” – while Mr Netanyahu described Nasrallah as “not another terrorist” but “the terrorist”.
Hezbollah describes its attacks on Israel as a “holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine”.
Posters of Hassan Nasrallah on the streets of Beirut on Sunday. Pic: Reuters
Nasrallah was Hezbollah’s leader for 32 years – successfully turning it into Iran’s most influential proxy.
Thousands of people gathered to protest against his killing in the capital of Tehran – and other cities across the Arab world.
A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Abbas Nilforushan, was also killed in the strike that killed Nasrallah on Friday, according to Iranian state media.
