If the claim is true, Nasrallah is by far the most powerful target to be killed by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah. The military said it carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leadership met at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.

The attack flattened part of a neighborhood to eliminate the cleric who led the group for three decades and built it into a fearsome foe.