The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Saturday that an IDF strike targeting Hezbollah’s Central Headquarters, underneath residential buildings in Beirut, killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Shia organization Hezbollah on Friday night.

The IDF claims that the headquarters were a “legitimate military target under international law”.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas criticized Israel’s targeting of civilians, referring to the strike as a “continuation of the war of genocide against the Palestinian and Lebanese people”.

Under international humanitarian law, targeting civilian non-combatants is not permitted, even if there is a presence of legitimate military targets among the civilian population. International humanitarian law also forbids hiding military targets behind civilians.

Since the October 7th attack by Hamas, hostilities have escalated near the Lebanese-Israeli border as the IDF increases its operations targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon. The escalation of the conflict has forced 60,000 people to flee northern Israel, according to the IDF, and displaced 90,000 people in Lebanon, according to the UN.

On September 18th, the conflict further intensified as Israel simultaneously detonated thousands of communication devices sold to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, injuring thousands of civilians. Human rights experts at the UN labelled the attack as a “terrifying violation of international law”. International organizations have called for investigations into the incident and warned that a humanitarian crisis in the region is imminent.

Israel has also been criticized for its use of white phosphorus incendiary weapons in attacks that do not distinguish civilians from combatants. The use of incendiary white phosphorus weapons against civilians, or military targets in proximity to civilians is a violation of Article 2 of the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons (Protocol III).

Hezbollah is a listed terrorist organization in multiple Western countries, including the US and the UK.

On Thursday, multiple Western nations issued a joint statement urging for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The IDF claims that it intends to de-escalate, although in a press briefing on Saturday the IDF announced further strikes on Hezbollah’s “strategic assets”. These strikes were targeted at an anti-ship missile arsenal, which was allegedly supplied by Iran.