Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, today confirmed the death of Hassan Nasrallah, its longtime leader, in a strike marking a major escalation of Israel’s campaign against Iran’s proxies in the Middle East that could shake up the regional order.

The death of Nasrallah, after Israel bombed three apartment buildings shielding Hezbollah’s underground headquarters near Beirut, confronts Iran with major decisions. The success of the strike may reinvigorate Lebanon’s moribund government, and could leave Israel feeling less threatened now that a key Iranian deterrent has been weakened.

The killing pushed Israel’s nearly yearlong war against Iran-backed forces — Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — into new territory. Iran has long sought to have its proxies serve as on front line in its fight with Israel. But if its most important military asset, Hezbollah, has been decimated, Tehran may have no choice but to respond, experts said today.

Yet while fiercely condemning the attack, Iran’s clerics have not taken any direct steps in retaliation, nor have they punished Israel for the killing last month of Ismail Haniyeh, the former leader of Hamas, in Tehran, Iran’s capital. That inaction has led other analysts to conclude that the Iranians do not want to risk a direct confrontation with Israel.

Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, released a statement today saying, “All the resistance forces in the region stand with and support Hezbollah.”

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The strike put the future of cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah in doubt. Up to the day of the bombing, the Biden administration had been pursuing an agreement that U.S. officials had been led to believe Israel was fully behind.

Nasrallah’s death came as part of a sudden barrage. Israeli leaders, who had been aware of Nasrallah’s whereabouts for months, decided to strike after learning that the Hezbollah leader would soon move to a different location, three senior Israeli defense officials said.

A senior Iranian commander of the Quds Forces, Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilofouroshan, was also killed in the Israeli strike, Iran’s state news agency reported. Nilofouroshan was the commander of operations for Lebanon and Syria, a veteran of the Revolutionary Guard and among the most senior Iranian commanders killed by Israel.

Two of the Israeli officials said that more than 80 bombs were dropped over a period of several minutes in the operation. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said today that at least 11 people had been killed and over 100 injured in the strikes. The toll was expected to rise significantly as rescuers searched the rubble.

The killing of Nasrallah, a towering figure among anti-Israel forces across the Middle East and beyond, struck a tremendous blow to Hezbollah, ending an era in the Lebanese group’s decades-old fight with Israel and raising questions about its future. Nasrallah played multiple roles in the lives of Hezbollah’s members, serving at once as a religious guide, political strategist and commander in chief.

His death deprives the organization of his vast experience, personal relationships with other militia leaders and the unifying force of his rhetoric and personality.

But the conflict in Lebanon seems far from over. Today, officials in both Hezbollah and the Israeli military vowed to continue their fight, and Israel resumed airstrikes in Lebanon.

Nasrallah, a Shiite cleric who had led Hezbollah since 1992, oversaw its growth into an influential political party with seats in the Lebanese parliament and a powerful militia armed with an extensive arsenal of missiles, rockets and drones.

News of Nasrallah’s death brought not only condemnation from Iran’s leaders and expressions of shock and mourning by Hezbollah supporters in Beirut and elsewhere in the region, but also celebrations from some anti-Hezbollah groups in the Middle East.

Outside a large mosque in downtown Beirut, children and adults wiped away tears, and several women began wailing with grief. “He’s gone! Sayyid, he’s gone!” one woman shouted, using a common honorific for Nasrallah. Another woman, Jamila Ghaith, 53, was shaking her head. “We’ll keep following his path,” she cried out. “Even if he died, he’ll win.”

Today, Iranians mourning Nasrallah gathered in several places, including Tehran’s Palestine Square, waving the Hezbollah flag and beating their chests as religious ballads were broadcast.

Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, declared three days of mourning in all parts of Iraq.

Hamas, which attacked Israel in October, prompting a campaign of retaliation in Gaza, released a statement saying that Israeli assassinations “will only make the resistance in Palestine and in Lebanon more determined and persistent.”

Reactions in other parts of a deeply divided Lebanon were mixed. In Achrafieh, a predominantly Christian neighborhood in Beirut, news of Nasrallah’s death was welcome, although it stoked unease. While many Christian Lebanese held great disdain for Nasrallah, some worried that his assassination cold spark internal strife, if not another civil war.

“They are targeting the most powerful party in Lebanon. God knows what this will usher forward,” said Joseph Haddad, 60, as he played backgammon at an intersection in Achrafief.

In parts of Syria, the recent Israeli raids on Hezbollah, and news of its leader’s death, were welcomed, even with singing in the streets. Hezbollah, a Shiite militia, played a key role in President Bashar Assad’s defeat of the mostly Sunni opposition in the 2011 uprising there, mounting sieges that starved encircled communities for months and operations that expelled many Sunni Muslims from neighborhoods and towns.

As Israel launched strike after successful strike against Hezbollah in the past two weeks — starting with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, and culminating in the airstrikes that killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader — many Syrians from the opposition have posted celebratory messages on social media. Some used the hashtag “ana shamtan,” which translates roughly into, “I have schadenfreude.”

Unlike Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which most of the Arab world strongly condemns and often describes as genocidal, its strikes on Hezbollah have exposed the fractures within the region’s political landscape.

Many Arab communities, including some Christian groups and many from the Sunni Muslim world, are wary of, if not hostile to, the network of militias backed by Iran, which they believe aims to promote Shiites’ sectarian dominance.

In Beirut, the Lebanese government was preparing for demonstrations and unrest. Lebanese army tanks were deployed near the Burj Al Ghazal bridge late this afternoon in anticipation of possible clashes in the wake of Nasrallah’s death. The bridge divides a Shiite neighborhood, Khandaa Al-Ghami, from a Christian one, Achrafieh, and has been the site of previous confrontations.

For now, Israeli warplanes continue to strike Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including in the southern suburbs of Beirut, said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson. “We are continuing, in these very hours, to strike, eliminate and kill the commanders of Hezbollah,” Hagari told reporters at a televised briefing.

The airstrikes have targeted not only Hezbollah leaders, but also its formidable caches of armaments including drones, rockets and missiles. How effective the Israel bombing has been in destroying the Hezbollah arsenal is uncertain.

Still, Israel was taking precautions today.

The Israeli military has ordered new restrictions on mass gatherings in parts of central Israel, including the greater Tel Aviv area, in the wake of Nasrallah’s killing, anticipating a potential response by Hezbollah. Gatherings of over 1,000 people will be banned, Hagari said.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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