Israel has said that Hezbollah headquarters, where its chief Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated last week, was located next to a United Nations (UN)-run school.
Israel on Friday conducted massive airstrikes in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The airstrikes in the neighbourhood of Dahieh, a stronghold of Hezbollah in southern Beirut, struck the central headquarters of the terrorist group. The target was the group’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
Both Israel and Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death separately in the attack the next day.
Israel has shared satellite imagery of the neighborhood, demonstrating transparency, and has said Hezbollah’s headquarters was operating barely 53 meters away from a UN-run school.
53 meters. That’s the distance between a @UN school and Hezbollah’s underground headquarters where Hassan Nasrallah was eliminated alongside 20+ additional terrorists.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 29, 2024
The terrorists were in Hezbollah’s central headquarters, located in the heart of Beirut, embedded beneath… pic.twitter.com/eTor8mBGhU
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the fact that Hezbollah had embedded its headquarters amid civilian buildings “unequivocally” proved that the group hides among civilians and endangers the lives of ordinary Lebanese people.
In the image shared by the IDF, a UN-run school is seen 53 meters away from the said headquarters of Hezbollah, and another school is 123 meters away from the site.
The IDF said, “The terrorists were in Hezbollah’s central headquarters, located in the heart of Beirut, embedded beneath civilian buildings. This unequivocally proves that Hezbollah hides among civilians, endangering the lives of the people of Lebanon.”
Hezbollah and other terrorist groups in the Middle East, including Palestinian groups like Hamas, are known to hide among civilians in the region. Before launching the ongoing attacks against Hezbollah last week, which climaxed on Friday with the assassination of Friday, Israel had warned civilians across Lebanon to vacate the strongholds of Hezbollah to avoid being collateral damage in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
In a message to the Lebanese people, IDF Spokesperson Hagari expressed genuine concern, asking them to “move out of harm’s way for their safety” and vacate Hezbollah’s strongholds in southern Lebanon.
Sharing illustrations of how Hezbollah embeds weapons inside civilians’ houses in Lebanese villages, Hagari said that Hezbollah stores cruise missiles, rockets, launchers, and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) inside civilian homes hidden behind the Lebanese population living in villages.
Hagari said, “There are dozens of Lebanese villages situated along approximately 80 kilometers of the border with Israel. For over 20 years, Hezbollah has deployed its arms inside homes and militarised civilian infrastructure. As a result, the Hezbollah terrorist organization has turned southern Lebanon into a battlefield.”
Hagari stressed the importance of the IDF’s message, urging people to “pay attention to the message and warning published by the IDF and heed them.”
