Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Israeli airstrikes had killed two successors to Hezbollah’s slain leader, as Israel expanded its ground offensive against the Iran-backed group with a fourth army division deployed in south Lebanon.
Netanyahu spoke in a video released by his office hours after the deputy leader of Hezbollah left the door open to a negotiated ceasefire.
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including (Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu said, without naming the latter two.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to succeed Nasrallah, had probably been “eliminated.” It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the “replacement of the replacement.”
Later, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel knew Safieddine was in Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters when fighter jets bombed it last week and Safieddine’s status was “being checked and when we know, we will inform the public.”
Safieddine has not been heard from publicly since that airstrike, part of an escalating Israeli offensive after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah.
“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years,” Netanyahu said.
Hezbollah has not yet commented on Netanyahu’s announcements.
Israel’s military said on Tuesday that heavy air strikes against underground Hezbollah installations in southern Lebanon over the prior 24 hours killed at least 50 fighters including six sector commanders and regional officials.
UN chief warns Lebanon is on verge of all-out war
Lebanon is “on the verge of an all-out war,” but there is still time to stop, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, Guterres said the Middle East “is a powder keg with many parties holding the match.”
“I have warned for months of the risks of the conflict spreading,” said the UN chief, adding that the situation in the occupied West Bank is “boiling over,” and attacks in Lebanon are threatening the entire region.
He said that over the last few days, exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and others in Lebanon and the Israel Defense Forces have intensified across the Blue Line, in total disregard of Security Council resolutions 1701 and 1559.
Guterres noted that large-scale Israeli strikes deep into Lebanon, including Beirut, have killed more than 2,000 people over the last year – 1,500 in just the past two weeks alone, and attacks by Hezbollah and others south of the Blue Line have killed at least 49 people over the last year. In addition, Lebanese authorities report over 1 million people have been displaced in Lebanon, and 300,000 people have fled into Syria, while over 60,000 people remain displaced from northern Israel.
“We are on the verge of an all-out war in Lebanon, with already devastating consequences. But there is still time to stop,” he said.
“The sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected,” he stressed.
Guterres said the past year “has been a year of crises – humanitarian crisis, political crisis, diplomatic crisis and a moral crisis,” and “the nightmare in Gaza is now entering an atrocious, abominable second year.”
China to provide emergency humanitarian medical supplies to Lebanon
China will provide emergency humanitarian medical supplies to Lebanon under the request from the Lebanese government, a spokesperson of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) said Tuesday.
The situation in Lebanon and Israel has escalated recently, and explosions of communication devices and airstrikes occurring in various parts of Lebanon have resulted in a large number of casualties, spokesperson Li Ming noted in a statement released by the CIDCA.
(With input from agencies)