JERUSALEM: Israel “delivered crushing blows to all our enemies”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, explicitly mentioning the killing of Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr in south Beirut.

Netanyahu’s televised statement lasted for approximately five minutes and did not make any reference to the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. But he said that had Israel succumbed to pressure for ending the conflict in Gaza it “would not have eliminated Hamas leaders and thousands of terrorists”.

He directly referred to Tuesday’s killing of Shukr in a southern Beirut neighbourhood. “We’ve eliminated (Hezbollah chief Hassan) Nasrallah’s right-hand man, who was directly responsible for the massacre of children,” Netanyahu said, in reference to the killing of 12 children over the weekend in a strike Israel has blamed on the Lebanese armed group.

“We have settled our scores with Mohsen and we will settle our scores with anyone who harms us,” he said using Shukr’s nom de guerre. “Anyone who kills our children, anyone who assassinates our citizens, anyone who harms our country — their head is marked for a price.” Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack on Israel-annexed Golan Heights on Saturday. “If we had listened to these voices, we would not have eliminated Hamas leaders and thousands of terrorists, we would not have destroyed terrorist infrastructures ... we would not have created the conditions that bring us closer to an agreement that will allow both the liberation of all our hostages and the achievement of all the war’s objectives,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2024