“Reckoning with a mass murderer”
Netanyahu justifies killing of Hezbollah chief
September 28, 2024, 11:41 p.m
After the violent death of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, many in the West fear retaliation from Tehran. But Israel’s prime minister is issuing an extremely clear warning to Iran. The Ayatollahs are also not safe if they attack his country, explains Netanyahu.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the targeted killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “reckoning with a mass murderer.” “He was not just any terrorist, but the terrorist par excellence,” Netanyahu told media representatives in Tel Aviv. It was his first public statement after the Israeli military killed the Lebanese Shiite leader in Beirut on Friday.
Nasrallah was a kind of turbo of the “axis of evil” created by Iran, he continued. The Hezbollah leader is guilty of murdering countless Israelis, hundreds of Americans and dozens of French people. “As long as Nasrallah had been alive, he would have quickly restored the military capabilities that we took away from Hezbollah,” he continued. “That’s why I gave the order – and Nasrallah is no longer with us.”
Netanyahu said the killing of Nasrallah was also progress towards the desired return of tens of thousands of Israelis to the north of the country. They had to leave their homes because Hezbollah has been shelling the area with rockets, grenades and drones since the Gaza war began almost a year ago. Hezbollah says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Warning to the Ayatollahs
At the same time, Netanyahu warned Iran against an attack on Israel. “And to the Ayatollah regime I say: whoever attacks us, we attack. There is no place in Iran or the Middle East that Israel’s long arm cannot reach,” he warned.
Iran under religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is considered a protective power and the most important ally of the Shiite Hezbollah militia. President Khamenei ordered national mourning after Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb. Among those killed in Friday’s airstrike was Iranian Brigadier General Abbas Nilforushan, the Revolutionary Guard’s deputy commander for operations.
However, it is far from clear whether Iran will come to Hezbollah’s aid. The new Iranian government under President Massoud Peseschkian is struggling with a severe economic crisis and is striving for a rapprochement with the West. Although Iran’s military leadership announced retaliation after the killing of Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniya in Tehran at the end of July, this has not yet materialized.
