by JNS Staff
"I expect the government of Lebanon to fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah," said the Israeli premier.
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Hezbollah
terrorists salute and raise the group's yellow flag during a funeral in
Chehabiyeh in Southern Lebanon, April 17, 2024. Photo by AFP via Getty
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged Beirut to disarm Hezbollah, speaking after an Israel Defense Forces strike in the Lebanese capital killed the Iran-backed terror group’s “chief of staff.”
“I expect the government of Lebanon to fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah,” said Netanyahu as he confirmed the death of Haytham Ali Tabatabai, the group’s No. 2 after Secretary-General Naim Qassem.
Only through Beirut fulfilling its commitments under the Nov. 26, 2024, ceasefire understandings with Jerusalem, Netanyahu said, “can a better future be made possible for every citizen in Lebanon—and only in this way can good and secure neighborly relations be established,” he said.
The premier in his remarks congratulated the IDF on the “professional, accurate and successful” strike and vowed that, “under my leadership, the State of Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power and we will not allow it to pose a threat to the State of Israel again.”
Netanyahu noted that Tabatabai was a “mass murderer” whose hands were “soaked in the blood of many Israelis and Americans, and it is not for nothing that the U.S. put a bounty of five million dollars on his head.”
The slain Hezbollah commander led the terror group’s Radwan Force, which has been preparing “to conquer the Galilee and slaughter many of our citizens,” said Netanyahu.
In recent months, he was in charge of Hezbollah’s efforts to rearm, after the “heavy blows” it suffered during a year of fighting with the IDF.
Tabatabai, who reportedly survived two previous IDF assassination attempts, was killed on Sunday when Israeli Air Force fighter jets dropped precision munitions on his hideout apartment on the fourth floor of a building in Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh district, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported.
Hezbollah confirmed the assassination of its chief of staff in a statement, describing Tabatabai with the epithet “commander of the great jihad,” a title reserved for the Shi’ite terrorist organization’s most senior leaders.
The organization confirmed that four terrorists were slain alongside Tabatabai, identifying them as Ibrahim Ali Hussein, Rifaat Ahmed Hussein, Mustafa Asaad Barrou and Qassem Hussein Barjawi.
Hezbollah said Tabatabai had become “a martyr for Lebanon following the treacherous Israeli attack” in Beirut.” However, Sunday’s statement stopped short of issuing or hinting at any threat of retaliation.
Although there is currently no change in the instructions for civilians on the Israeli home front, residents of the north are concerned about possible retaliation by the terror group, and Jerusalem already has battle plans in place in case there is a response from Hezbollah, according to Channel 12.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated on Sunday night that, “The State of Israel will continue to act as required to eliminate the threat on the northern border and strengthen the security of the residents of the area and all citizens of the State of Israel.”
The Israeli head of state commended “the prime minister, the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff, the Cabinet, the security forces and all those involved in the elimination of Hezbollah’s chief of staff.”
On Nov. 26, 2024, Jerusalem and Beirut signed a ceasefire deal aimed at ending more than a year of cross-border fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed terrorists began attacking the Jewish state in support of Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
Since the truce, the IDF has conducted frequent raids to stop Hezbollah from rebuilding terror infrastructure in Lebanon, in violation of the deal.
A senior Israeli official told Israel Hayom on Thursday that Jerusalem has not seen the Lebanese army dismantling Hezbollah, as required under the truce, and that only the IDF could disarm the terrorists.
Israeli ground forces over the past year carried out some 1,200 incursions into Southern Lebanon, Ynet reported on Monday.
The IDF’s moves included overt and covert patrols, ambushes targeting terrorists and the destruction of structures or tunnel shafts that were not uncovered during “Operation Northern Arrows” in late 2024, it said.
The military operations spanned Israel’s entire 87-mile border with the Land of the Cedars, and included three to five raids daily within 1.9 to 3.1 miles of the frontier, according to Monday morning’s Ynet report.
JNS Staff
Source: https://www.jns.org/netanyahu-renews-call-for-beirut-to-disarm-hezbollah/
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