Khamenei condemns 'short-sighted' Israeli policy after Lebanon strikes

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned on Saturday what he called an Israeli "massacre" in Lebanon after strikes that Israel said killed the Hezbollah leader.

Lebanon's health ministry gave a preliminary toll of six dead and 91 wounded from the latest strikes on Beirut's densely populated southern suburbs since Friday, the fiercest to hit Hezbollah's stronghold since Israel and the group last went to war in 2006.

Lebanon's health ministry has said hundreds have been killed in Israeli air raids since Monday, the deadliest day of violence since Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, as cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel escalated.

"The massacre of the defenseless people in Lebanon once again revealed the ferocity of the Zionist rabid dog to everyone, and proved the short-sighted and stupid policy of the leaders of the usurping regime," Khamenei said in a statement, without mentioning the fate of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

On Saturday, Israel's military said Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs the previous night, which was later confirmed by Hezbollah, armed and financed by Iran.

Khamenei's statement gave no mention of Nasrallah but he said Israel was "too weak to cause significant damage to the solid construction of Hezbollah in Lebanon."

He called on the "Axis of Resistance", Iran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East that have targeted Israel and its U.S. ally, to stand with Hezbollah.

"Lebanon will make the aggressor and the evil enemy regretful," said Khamenei.