Prime Minister Netanyahu on Elimination of Haitham Ali Tabataba’i, Acting Hezbollah Chief of Staff: ‘Israel Will Not Allow Hezbollah to Rearm’

Jerusalem, 23 November, 2025 (TPS-IL) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the Israeli public on television Sunday night after the israeli military eliminated Haitham Ali Tabataba’i, the acting Hezbollah Chief of Staff, in an airstrike in the Beirut area earlier in the day, and declared that Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rearm.

He thanked the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Israel’s other security forces for carrying out a “professional, precise and successful operation today.”

Netanyahu called Tabataba’i a “master of murderers” whose “hands were stained with the blood of many Israelis and Americans, and it is not without reason that the US offered a $5 million dollar reward on his head.”

He also pointed out that Tabataba’i served as a senior commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan force, a force Netanyahu charged prepared to “conquer the Galilee and slaughter many of our citizens.”

Tabataba’i also recently led Hezbollah’s renewed efforts to rearm.

“The policy I am pursuing is absolutely clear,” declared Netanyahu. “Under my leadership, the State of Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power, and we will not allow it to once again pose a threat to the State of Israel. I expect the Lebanese government to fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah. Because only in this way will every citizen in Lebanon be able to have a better future, and only in this way can good and secure neighborliness exist between Israel and Lebanon.”

Netanyahu also took the opportunity to commend President Trump for his decision to outlaw and designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

“It is an organization that endangers stability throughout the Middle East and beyond,” he said. “Therefore, the State of Israel has already outlawed part of the organization, and we are working to complete this action soon.”