Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday confirmed that he personally authorised the operation to eliminate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. The 64-year-old Nasrallah was killed as Israeli strikes targeted dozens of Hezbollah sites in eastern and southern Lebanon following intense rocket fire by the group into northern Israel. Israeli jets bombarded Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut overnight, flattening several residential buildings.

Netanyahu termed Nasrallah’s death as a critical achievement in Israel’s military strategy and as a step toward restoring security along Israel’s northern borders.

Addressing his country following Nasrallah’s killing, Netanyahu said that Nasrallah had been responsible for orchestrating numerous attacks on Israelis and foreign nationals, including high-profile bombings in the 1980s. 

These attacks included the 1983 bombings in Beirut that killed 63 people at the US embassy and hundreds of US Marines and French paratroopers. Netanyahu said that “terrorist” Nasrallah’s death was vital for degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities, stating, “As long as Nasrallah was alive, he would quickly restore the capabilities we had eroded from Hezbollah.”

“We settled the score with the one responsible for the murder of countless Israelis and many citizens of other countries, including hundreds of Americans and dozens of French,” he said 

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The Israeli Prime Minister pointed to the elimination of Nasrallah as a turning point that would accelerate the return of northern Israeli residents who had fled due to cross-border fire and further weaken Hamas, Hezbollah’s ally in Gaza. “The more [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar sees that Hezbollah is no longer coming to save him, the greater the chances for the return of our hostages,” Netanyahu said, referring to the ongoing efforts to secure the release of Israelis captured by Hamas during its October 7 attack.

Netanyahu praised Israel’s military and intelligence agencies, including the IDF, Mossad, and Shin Bet, for executing the operation. “We are winning,” he said.

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Netanyahu used Nasrallah’s death as an opportunity to warn Iran. He said that Israel’s reach extends across the region, including Iran, and made clear that the killing of Nasrallah should serve as a message to Tehran and its proxies. “There is nowhere in Iran or the Middle East beyond the reach of the long arm of Israel, and today you know how true that is,” he said. “I say to the Ayatollah’s regime: whoever beat us, we will beat them.”

Concluding his message, Netanyahu called this period a “historic turning point” and reaffirmed his commitment to the safe return of displaced residents and the recovery of hostages. He ended with a pledge of unity: “We will fight together, and with God’s help, we will win together.”

“We are determined to continue to strike at our enemies, return our residents to their homes, and return all our abductees. We do not forget them for a moment,” he said. 

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