Netanyahu: Tabatabai was ‘mass murderer’ leading Hezbollah rearmament

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s de facto chief of staff, led the terror group’s efforts to rearm.

“Israel will not let Hezbollah rebuild its strength,” Netanyahu insists in a video statement hours after the Israeli Air Force killed Tabatabai in an airstrike. He calls the senior Hezbollah official “a mass murderer” with the blood of many Israelis and Americans on his hands.

Netanyahu says that he “expects the Lebanese government to fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah.”

“Only in this way will every citizen of Lebanon have a better future, and only in this way can peaceful and secure neighborly relations between Israel and Lebanon exist,” he says.

Netanyahu also praises US President Donald Trump for his decision to make the final preparations for outlawing the Muslim Brotherhood and declaring it a terrorist organization. He pledges that Israel will complete the process of outlawing the organization as well.

Israel currently bans only some branches of the movement in Israel.