Written by by Peter Beaumont at theguardian.com
Israel’s claimed assassination of Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a massive strike on an underground headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs marks the most alarming escalation in almost a year of war between the Shia militant organisation and Israel.
Immediately after a bellicose speech by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the UN general assembly – where he appeared to directly threaten Iran as well as promise to continue “degrading” Hezbollah – the first reports of a major strike began to emerge.
In less than an hour, Israeli journalists with connections to the country’s defence and security establishment were suggesting Nasrallah was the target and that he had been in the area of the headquarters at the time of the strike. On Saturday morning, the Israeli military said he had been killed.
That the strike was regarded as highly significant was quickly confirmed soon after it happened by a series of statements from Israel – including an image showing Netanyahu ordering the attack on the phone from his New York hotel room.