The Israeli military attacked Hezbollah’s headquarters outside Beirut on Friday evening, apparently targeting the militant group’s longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah.

It was not immediately clear whether Nasrallah was at the site at the time of the airstrike, which leveled several residential buildings in the Lebanese capital’s Dahiyeh district. The Israel Defense Forces stated that these buildings were located at Hezbollah’s main command post.

According to IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the attack was a “precise attack on Hezbollah’s central headquarters, which was deliberately built under residential buildings in Beirut to use them as human shields.”

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least two people were killed and dozens more injured.

The attack came just moments after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, telling assembled delegates that Israel would continue to fight Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both militant groups are Iranian proxies.

“For too long the world has appeased Iran,” Netanyahu said. “This appeasement must end, and this appeasement must end now.”

The prime minister was due to leave New York earlier than planned on Friday to return to Israel.

Photos and videos from the scene of the attack showed black smoke rising over downtown Beirut and widespread devastation on the ground, including a large crater and mangled cars. Witnesses in Beirut told Reuters they heard several explosions.

A source “close to Hezbollah” told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive, while Iranian state media also reported that he was safe.

Axios reported, citing senior Israeli officials, that there was “evidence” that Nasrallah was at the compound at the time of the attack and that anyone inside “would have had a very slim chance of getting out alive” given the extent of the damage. . .

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called an emergency meeting of his National Security Council New York Times reported, citing Iranian officials.

Newsweek has reached out to sources within Hezbollah for comment.

A State Department spokesman said Newsweek that the US had “no knowledge of or involvement in any IDF military action in Beirut today.”

The Iranian embassy in Lebanon called the attack “a reprehensible crime and reckless behavior” that “represents a dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game.”

Friday night’s airstrikes – the largest since the last Israel-Lebanon war in 2006 – came as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah were already at their peak. The group has been firing rockets across the Lebanese-Israeli border in solidarity with Hamas for nearly a year and said it would continue to do so until Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Israel is believed to be behind a recent sophisticated covert operation that targeted the pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah fighters across Lebanon and parts of Syria. Hundreds of these explosive devices exploded almost simultaneously, killing dozens and injuring hundreds more. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, civilians were among the victims.

Nasrallah responded to these coordinated attacks by saying Israel had crossed a “red line” and vowed to continue Hezbollah’s border attacks that have led to the displacement of thousands of Israelis.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon last week killed more than 720 people across the country, including dozens of women and children, before Friday’s airstrike, according to Health Ministry statistics.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.