Israel's attacks in Lebanon will continue for the foreseeable future, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, despite confirmation the leader of the country's main adversary there, Hezbollah, had been killed.
About 15 hours after it launched massive air strikes in southern Beirut on Friday night, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) released a statement saying Hassan Nasrallah had died in the blasts. Hezbollah confirmed he had been killed, without saying how.
Some allies urged Israel to use assassinating Nasrallah, who headed the militant group for more than three decades, as a full stop to its conflict with Hezbollah. It didn't even serve as a comma.
The country's military continued to bombard multiple areas across Lebanon throughout Saturday, including massive blasts in Beirut again as night fell.
In a brief statement made after 10pm local time on Saturday (5am Sunday AEST), Mr Netanyahu said Nasrallah's death would change the balance of power in the Middle East.
"Our work is not done, challenging days lie ahead," he said.
Earlier in the day, the IDF's most senior figure, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi in a video message released by the military said the army was "determined to keep fighting" and that it had "more missions ahead on all fronts".
The IDF said it had bombed residential buildings to reach Nasrallah, whom it believed was in a Hezbollah command centre beneath them.
According to Lebanon's health ministry, 1,030 people have been killed in the attacks between September 16 and 27, while another 6,352 have been injured.
The bombings have been particularly intense in Lebanese provinces close to its border with Israel, and in Beirut's southern suburbs, including the Dahiyeh area.
That's where Khaled Ahmad and his family are from. They fled their home after an IDF air strike on Friday evening.
"We escaped straight away. That's what happened," the father-of-five told the ABC.
They're sleeping near Martyrs' Square, in the capital's central business district, with thousands of other people who've been displaced by the attacks.
"We stayed up all night, we have not slept yet. That's our situation. We took nothing with us. We went with our clothes, that's all," Khaled said.
"It is safer for us here, far from the bombing.
"We cannot go back home. Our homes have been destroyed, all gone."
According to United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) figures, more than 211,000 people in Lebanon had been displaced since hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel began in October last year, including around 118,000 this week.
Lebanon's government says that number is significantly higher.
Nevine has also been forced to flee her home in Beirut's south, and is sheltering at the El Amine mosque near Martyrs' Square.
"As soon as air strikes started, we went back home and escaped. There is no one left in the neighbourhoods. The strikes were quite intense," she said.
Hezbollah, while not part of Lebanon's government, wields significant power in the country, particularly in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Nevine said she did not believe Nasrallah was dead.
"We are all yours Sayyed [Nasrallah] and we hope you are in no harm. We die all of us but Sayyed is untouchable," she said.
Hezbollah, which continued firing rockets at Israel after its leader was killed, has been designated a terrorist organisation by the Australian government.
After Nasrallah's death was confirmed, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on all Muslims to confront Israel, while Iraq's PM announced there would be three days of mourning in his country.
But elsewhere, news of the militant group chief's death was welcomed, particularly in parts of Syria, where Hezbollah backed the country's president and dictator Bashar al-Assad during the civil war.
