JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli forces have killed the would-be successors of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, without naming them.
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message.
Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to replace the slain Nasrallah, had probably been “eliminated”. It was not immediately clear who Netanyahu meant by the “replacement of the replacement”.
“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years,” Netanyahu said in the video message directed at the people of Lebanon.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel last Oct. 8, a day after Hamas Palestinian militants attacked southern Israel from Gaza. Hezbollah cited solidarity with Hamas.
Some 60,000 Israeli citizens in the country’s north have been forced to leave their homes, while Israel’s stated objective is to make its northern areas safe from Hezbollah rocket fire and allow those displaced residents to return.
“Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel also has a right to win. And Israel will win,” Netanyahu said.
He urged Lebanon to “take back your country” and return it to a path of peace and prosperity and take advantage of an opportunity that hasn’t existed in decades.
“If you don’t, Hezbollah will continue to try to fight Israel from densely populated areas at your expense. It doesn’t care if Lebanon is dragged into a wider war,” he added. “Christians, Druze, Muslims — Sunnis and Shiites — all of you are suffering because of Hezbollah’s futile war against Israel.
“Don’t let these terrorists destroy your future any more than they’ve already done,” Netanyahu added. “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza. It doesn’t have to be that way.”
(Reporting by Steven Scheer and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Gareth Jones and Hugh Lawson)
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