Demonstrators hold pictures of Hassan Nasrallah, the late leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, during a protest vigil in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Saturday.

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Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah sparked joy and anger across the Middle East, contradicting reactions that reveal the region’s deep divisions.

Hezbollah confirmed that its 32-year-old leader was killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike and expressed condolences for others killed with him after what the group called a “treacherous Zionist raid on the southern suburbs.” from Beirut.

It described Nasrallah as “a great martyr, a heroic, courageous, courageous, wise, insightful and faithful leader” who, despite his death, “would still remain among us with his thoughts, his spirit, his line and his holy approach” .

In Washington, President Biden said in a White House statement that Nasrallah and Hezbollah “were responsible for the killings of hundreds of Americans during a four-decade reign of terror.”

The president called Nasrallah’s death “a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese civilians.” He also reiterated his full support for “Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and all other Iranian-backed terrorist groups.”

The Israeli military said the Hezbollah leader was killed at his headquarters beneath a residential building in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. It said Hezbollah’s acting deputy, Ali Karki, and other Hezbollah commanders were among those killed as they planned further attacks on Israel.

Highlighting the attack’s potential to spark an even larger conflict in the Middle East, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that an operational chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan, had also been killed in the attack. Iran has long funded and supported Hezbollah, while also supplying weapons and missile technology to the group.

The Israelis celebrated the murder

The attack on Hezbollah’s headquarters came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity as per protocol, said Netanyahu gave the green light for the attack before giving his speech.

In his first public comments on the attack on Friday, Netanyahu said the killing of Nasrallah, whom he called the “architect” of a plan to “annihilate” Israel, was an “essential prerequisite” for Israel to achieve its war goals.

The mood among the Israelis was jubilant. In a residential building in Tel Aviv, a song was sung with the Hebrew lyrics: “O Nasrallah, we will tear you down, God willing, and send you back to God along with all of Hezbollah.” On a beach in southern Israel, a lifeguard announced Beach visitors over a loudspeaker: “With joy, joy and jubilation, we officially announce that the rat Hassan Nasrallah was murdered yesterday. The people of Israel are alive.”

The Israeli military ordered restrictions on public gatherings in central Israel, a sign that the country was preparing for possible retaliation by Hezbollah or other Iranian-backed militias.

Thousands of reservists have also been called up and deployed to the country’s border with Lebanon in recent days as Hezbollah continues to exchange rocket fire with Israeli ground forces using artillery and tanks.

Meanwhile, senior figures across the Israeli political spectrum and the country’s military leaders praised the assassination. “He posed an imminent threat to the lives of thousands of Israelis and other citizens,” said the country’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant. “This action settled a long-standing score with the arch-murderer Nasrallah, whose hands were covered in the blood of thousands of civilians and soldiers.”

“Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world,” said Daniel Hagari, Israeli military spokesman. “Justice has been served.”

Iran announced days of mourning

Iranians protest in Tehran on Saturday against the Israeli airstrike in Lebanon that killed Hassan Nasrallah and several Hezbollah commanders.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned what he called an Israeli massacre in Lebanon and vowed that the fate of the Middle East would be determined by “the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront.” Iran announced five days of mourning for Nasrallah.

Khamenei called on Muslims to stand with the Lebanese people and Hezbollah in the confrontation with Israel. The new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian described the killing of Nasrallah as a war crime.

Since Hezbollah began sending rockets into northern Israel on October 8, a day after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the group has fired 9,300 rockets, killing 49 people, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office 372 injured. The Lebanese Health Ministry said separately on Saturday that more than 1,000 people had been killed in Lebanon in the last 10 days alone, including dozens of women and children. More than 6,000 were injured, it said.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese have fled the country’s southern and eastern regions, which have come under repeated Israeli attacks over the past week. And many also streamed across the border into neighboring Syria, Syrian journalist Danny Makki told NPR from the capital Damascus.

“The Syrians at the moment are more interested in getting them to safety and helping them in a humanitarian sense,” Makki said, but acknowledged that the Hezbollah leader’s death had far-reaching implications. “Nasrallah is a very big figure in the region and has been an integral part of Middle East politics.”

In Syria, where Hezbollah has supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s brutal civil war, people in Idlib province celebrated in the streets, Syrian journalist Fared Al Mahlool told NPR. “People are happy to hear that. … Too many people have been displaced, killed and lost loved ones because of Nasrallah’s support for the Syrian regime. They were involved in the destruction of several cities and the displacement of many people,” he said.

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two largest militant groups in Gaza that have been designated as terrorist organizations by the United States and several other nations, were defiant. Islamic Jihad said it was “fully confident” that Nasrallah’s death would “increase the strength, steadfastness and resolve of the resistance in Lebanon, Palestine and the region,” while a statement released by Hamas said the story show that the death of leaders like Nasrallah meant they would be “succeeded along the same path by a generation of leaders who are braver, stronger and more determined,” senior Hamas member Khalil al-Hayya said in a speech Al Jazeera said the souls of Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh – who was assassinated in July – were “in the birds of the sky.”

Demonstrators chant slogans while protesting in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Saturday after Hezbollah confirmed reports of the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike.

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Massive demonstrations broke out in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Saturday evening, with people vowing to continue the resistance.

Iraqi state television announced a three-day mourning period to commemorate Nasrullah’s martyrdom. The channel’s official website said: “This heinous crime will strengthen the spirit of resistance in the hearts of the people and strengthen the will to win in the fight against the vile Zionist entity.”

Some members of Iraq’s parliament cried on television when they heard the news of Nasrallah’s assassination. One lawmaker vowed that his death would “open the gates of fire against the Zionists.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning Nasrallah’s killing, saying it “has even greater dramatic consequences for Lebanon and the entire Middle East.” Moscow called on Israel to stop hostilities against Lebanon.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a post on X that he spoke to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday. “We agreed that an immediate ceasefire is needed to end the bloodshed,” Lammy said, adding that “a diplomatic solution is the only way to restore security and stability for the Lebanese and Israeli people.”