Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed to have assassinated two successors to Hezbollah’s slain chief in Lebanon airstrikes.
Netanyahu spoke in a video launched by his workplace hours after the deputy chief of Hezbollah, which is reeling after a spate of killings of senior commanders in Israeli airstrikes, left the door open to a negotiated cease-fire.
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of …, including (Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu mentioned, with out naming the latter two.
Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant mentioned Hashem Safieddine, the person anticipated to succeed Nasrallah, had most likely been “eliminated.” It was not instantly clear whom Netanyahu meant by the “replacement of the replacement.”
Safieddine has not been heard from publicly since one other airstrike late final week, a part of an escalating Israeli offensive after a yr of border clashes with Hezbollah, which helps Palestinian resistance teams preventing Israel in Gaza.
“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years,” Netanyahu added in reference to essentially the most formidably armed of Iran’s proxy forces throughout the Middle East.
The heightened regional tensions kindled a yr in the past by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion of southern Israel have escalated in current weeks to engulf Lebanon.
On Oct. 1, Iran, the sponsor of each Hezbollah and Hamas, fired missiles at Israel. On Tuesday, Iran warned Israel to not observe via on threats of retaliation. Its international minister mentioned any assault on Iran’s infrastructure could be avenged.
Western powers are looking for a diplomatic answer, fearing the battle may roil the broader, oil-producing Middle East.
Nasrallah successor doubtless ‘eradicated’
Safieddine, the senior Hezbollah official, was broadly anticipated to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, the Shiite Muslim motion’s longtime chief assassinated in an Israeli airstrike on south Beirut on Sept. 27.
“Hezbollah is an organization without a head. Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated,” Gallant instructed officers on the Israeli navy’s northern command heart, in a quick video section distributed by the navy.
Safieddine has been a first-rate goal for Israel, nurtured as an influential chief and potential inheritor to Nasrallah. As head of Hezbollah’s government council, he has overseen the group’s political affairs, whereas additionally sitting on the Jihad Council that manages its navy operations.
In a televised speech from an undisclosed location proven earlier than the discharge of Gallant’s video, Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Kassem mentioned he backed makes an attempt to safe a truce.
For the primary time, the tip of warfare in Gaza was not talked about as a pre-condition to halting the fight in Lebanon. Kassem mentioned Hezbollah backed strikes by Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to safe a halt to the preventing.
Netanyahu’s workplace declined to touch upon Qassem’s remarks.
Qassem mentioned Hezbollah’s capabilities have been intact regardless of “painful blows” from Israel. “Dozens of cities are within range of the resistance’s missiles. We assure you that our capabilities are fine.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com