Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed to have assassinated two successors to Hezbollah's slain leader in Lebanon airstrikes.
Netanyahu spoke in a video released by his office hours after the deputy leader of Hezbollah, which is reeling after a spate of killings of senior commanders in Israeli airstrikes, left the door open to a negotiated cease-fire.
"We've degraded Hezbollah's capabilities. We took out thousands of ..., including (Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's replacement, and the replacement of the replacement," Netanyahu said, without naming the latter two.
Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Defense 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."
Safieddine has not been heard from publicly since another airstrike late last week, part of an escalating Israeli offensive after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah, which supports Palestinian resistance groups fighting Israel in Gaza.
"Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years," Netanyahu added in reference to the most formidably armed of Iran's proxy forces across the Middle East.
The heightened regional tensions kindled a year ago by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion of southern Israel have escalated in recent weeks to engulf Lebanon.
On Oct. 1, Iran, the sponsor of both Hezbollah and Hamas, fired missiles at Israel. On Tuesday, Iran warned Israel not to follow through on threats of retaliation. Its foreign minister said any attack on Iran's infrastructure would be avenged.
Western powers are seeking a diplomatic solution, fearing the conflict could roil the wider, oil-producing Middle East.
Safieddine, the senior Hezbollah official, was widely expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, the Shiite Muslim movement's longtime leader assassinated in an Israeli airstrike on south Beirut on Sept. 27.
"Hezbollah is an organization without a head. Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated," Gallant told officers at the Israeli military's northern command center, in a brief video segment distributed by the military.
Safieddine has been a prime target for Israel, nurtured as an influential leader and potential heir to Nasrallah. As head of Hezbollah's executive council, he has overseen the group's political affairs, while also sitting on the Jihad Council that manages its military operations.
In a televised speech from an undisclosed location shown before the release of Gallant's video, Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Kassem said he backed attempts to secure a truce.
For the first time, the end of war in Gaza was not mentioned as a pre-condition to halting the combat in Lebanon. Kassem said Hezbollah backed moves by Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to secure a halt to the fighting.
Netanyahu's office declined to comment on Qassem's remarks.
Qassem said Hezbollah's capabilities were intact despite "painful blows" from Israel. "Dozens of cities are within range of the resistance's missiles. We assure you that our capabilities are fine."
