BEIRUT (AP) Lebanons Hezbollah group confirmed on Saturday that its leader and one of its founding members, Hassan Nasrallah , was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut.

The killing of the powerful militant groups longtime leader sent shockwaves throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, where he has been a dominant political and military figure for more than three decades.

Nasrallah, linked by Israel to numerous deadly attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets, has been on Israels kill list for decades. His assassination is by far the biggest and most consequential of Israels targeted killings in years, and significantly escalates the war in the Middle East. Hezbollah is backed by Iran, Israels chief regional rival.

The Israeli military said it carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leaders were meeting at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.

Immediately after the confirmation from Hezbollah, people starting firing in the air in Beirut and across Lebanon to mourn Nasrallahs death.

Wish it was our kids, not you, Sayyid! said one woman, using an honorific title for Nasrallah, as she clutched her baby in the western city of Baabda.

We dont believe he is killed, a woman draped in black tearfully told al-Manar TV in Bekaa, western Lebanon. We dont. We left our homes and came here for him and for the resistance.

In his first public remarks since the killing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israels targeting of Nasrallah was an essential condition to achieving the goals we set.