Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel for New York to “deceive” Hezbollah's leader into thinking he was safe, a senior Israeli official told The Telegraph.
Netanyahu's speech to the UN was part of a “diversion plan” intended to make Hassan Nasrallah believe that Israel would not take drastic action if the prime minister left the country.
Israel hit Beirut on Friday with a massive airstrike that shook the Lebanese capital.
Mr Nasrallah was believed to have been watching Mr Netanyahu's speech “and was subsequently attacked by Israeli Air Force aircraft”, the official said.
“Netanyahu approved the strike before delivering his speech at the UN,” the official added.
He went on to say that the Israeli assessment was that Mr Nasrallah was in the building at the time of the attack.
However, there are conflicting reports about his fate. Iran has said the Hezbollah chief is in “good health.”
The attack came minutes after Netanyahu vowed to continue operations against Hezbollah while addressing the UN chamber.
He struck a defiant tone, telling delegates that Israel would “continue to humiliate Hezbollah until all our objectives are achieved.”
The Israeli prime minister made little mention of the US-led peace plan that aims to broker a 21-day ceasefire between the IDF and Hezbollah.
He told the UN: “We will not accept a terrorist army parked on our northern border… capable of committing another October 7-style massacre.”
On Friday evening, the European Union's foreign affairs chief complained that no world power, including the US, can “stop” Mr Netanyahu.
Josef Borrell told reporters that the Israeli prime minister appears determined to crush militants in Gaza and Lebanon, with or without Western approval.
“What we are doing is applying all the diplomatic pressure to achieve a ceasefire, but no one seems to be able to stop Netanyahu, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank,” Borrell said.
On Friday evening, Israel launched a new wave of airstrikes on Beirut, targeting six suburbs in the south of the Lebanese capital that Hezbollah said were used by Hezbollah to store weapons.
