Supporters listen via video link to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during a ceremony marking the first week since the assassination of Hezbollah’s top commander Fuad Shukr on August 6 in Beirut. The militant group confirmed on Saturday that Nasrallah had been killed following Israeli airstrikes.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

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Chris McGrath/Getty Images

The Israeli military says several airstrikes killed the longtime leader of the militant Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, in central Beirut on Friday. This is another dramatic new development in a conflict that has spread across the Middle East since October last year.

In a statement on Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death and offered condolences for others who died with him “after the treacherous Zionist attack on the southern suburb.”

In a post on the social media platform

Nasrallah appeared in public very rarely during his 32-year tenure at the top of a group that has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries, including the United States.

Smoke rises Saturday after Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Hassan Ammar/AP

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Hassan Ammar/AP

Friday’s airstrikes leveled several large residential buildings in southern Beirut, which Israeli officials almost immediately called Hezbollah headquarters in their statements, even as clouds of smoke and debris from the explosion rose above the city.

Lebanon’s health ministry announced late Friday that six people had been killed and more than 90 injured in the strikes, but authorities said they were still clearing large amounts of rubble, meaning those numbers are likely to rise .

The announcement Saturday from Hezbollah’s leader added that the group’s senior military commander for the region close to Lebanon’s border with Israel was also killed. This would effectively mean that much of Hezbollah’s command structure has been eliminated by Israeli attacks over the past two months, while rocket, artillery, tank and aircraft fire continues across the border.

Israeli airstrikes continued Saturday morning in the southern suburbs of Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon. The Israeli military said reserve forces would mobilize close to the border with Lebanon, over which dozens of Hezbollah rockets continued to fly toward part of northern and central Israel.

Israel says it is preparing for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon and has continued to call up reservists for several days this week.

Israel’s top military commander, Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, issued a video statement Saturday saying that Friday’s unprecedented attacks targeting Hezbollah’s leadership were “not the end” of what he called the ” toolbox” of Israel.

“Anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel, we will know how to reach them.”