On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli forces have successfully targeted key figures in Hezbollah, including potential successors to the late leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. However, specific names were not disclosed, as reported by Reuters.
In a prerecorded message, Netanyahu claimed, “We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities, taking out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself, his replacement, and the replacement of the replacement.” Despite these statements, he did not confirm the identities of those eliminated.
A Hezbollah official mentioned that Israel was hampering search and rescue operations in areas believed to shelter Hashem Safieddine, who was seen as a likely successor to Nasrallah, during recent airstrikes in southern Beirut.
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Reports indicate that Nasrallah was killed in a September airstrike. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant suggested that Nasrallah’s immediate successor had also been “eliminated,” although Netanyahu’s mention of a “replacement of the replacement” is still ambiguous.
In his declaration aimed at the Lebanese public, Netanyahu asserted, “Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years.”
Hezbollah had commenced rocket attacks on Israel on October 8, in solidarity with Hamas, which had launched an assault on southern Israel from Gaza the previous day. The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people in Israel, primarily civilians, while Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported over 41,000 casualties in Israel’s ongoing retaliatory strikes.
The conflict has expanded beyond Gaza, with Hezbollah conducting cross-border strikes against Israel since the escalation began.
Latest Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza Result in Casualties
On Wednesday, Palestinian officials reported that Israeli airstrikes in central and northern Gaza killed at least 18 individuals, including five children and two women.
Strikes targeted makeshift camps for displaced residents in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, with nine bodies, including three children, transported to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, as confirmed by an Associated Press journalist.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
As tensions rise, Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s operations against Hezbollah, while the group’s acting leader pledged to persist in their resistance efforts in southern Lebanon.