Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, the Lebanese militant group has confirmed.
Nasrallah's killing deals a seismic blow to that has been engaged in a year of cross-border hostilities with Israel, sparked by .
Hezbollah's statement on Saturday came after the previous day in an air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs — a move that could destabilise Lebanon as a whole.
Iran, which arms and finances Hezbollah, said a senior member of its was killed in the same strike.
"Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years," Hezbollah said in a statement.
It said he was killed with other group members "following the treacherous Zionist strike on the southern suburbs" of Beirut.
Israel carried out more attacks on Lebanon into Saturday.
Rarely seen in public, Nasrallah had enjoyed cult status among his Shi'ite Muslim supporters, and was the only man in Lebanon with the power to wage war or make peace.
AFP journalists heard women weeping in the streets of Beirut as Hezbollah announced the news of his death.
But his death was hailed by some Israelis.
"Hassan Nasrallah is dead," Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced earlier on X.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, in a televised briefing, called Nasrallah "one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time" and added: "His elimination makes the world a safer place."
Hezbollah has confirmed its leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed.
Iran warns Israel of 'destruction'
In Iran's capital, Tehran, posters of Nasrallah were erected bearing the slogan "Hezbollah is alive".
Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref denounced the "unjust bloodshed" and threatened Nasrallah's killing will bring about Israel's "destruction".
"We warn the leaders of the occupying regime that the unjust bloodshed... especially of Hezbollah's secretary general, martyr Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, will bring about their destruction," Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Aref as saying.
An Israeli strike in Khiam town of Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon Saturday. Source: Getty, Anadolu / Ramiz Dallah
Hezbollah in Lebanon began low-intensity cross-border attacks a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October and triggered the war in the Palestinian enclave Gaza, which Hamas rules.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and about 250 hostages were taken.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.
'Most senior Hezbollah leaders eliminated': Israeli military
Israel has shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 700 people, according to Lebanon's health ministry, as cross-border exchanges escalated over the past week.
Most of those Lebanese deaths came on Monday, the deadliest day of violence since Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.
The United Nations (UN) said around 118,000 people have been displaced.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was "gravely concerned by the dramatic escalation of events in Beirut".
Israel's military said "most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated", and added that it had hit more than 140 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since Friday night.
Hamas on Saturday condemned Nasrallah's killing as a "cowardly terrorist act".
Also on Saturday, Israel's military also announced strikes in the Bekaa area in eastern Lebanon and on the south.
It said a surface-to-surface missile from Lebanon fell in an open area in central Israel and another was intercepted in the north.
Israeli tanks near the border with Lebanon on Saturday. Israel has raised the prospect of a ground operation against Hezbollah. Source: AAP, EPA / Atef Safadi
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until the northern border with Lebanon is secured.
"Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safe," he said.
Israel has raised the prospect of a ground operation against Hezbollah, prompting widespread international concern.
"We must avoid a regional war at all costs," Guterres told world leaders, again appealing for a ceasefire.
Diplomats have said in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink.
