Israel says it has killed slain Hezbollah leader’s successors

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Israeli airstrikes had killed two successors to Hezbollah’s slain leader, as Israel expanded its offensive against the Iran-backed group with a fourth army division deployed into south Lebanon.

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 ceasefire.

“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including (Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu said, without naming the latter two.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli Defence 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”.

Read more: Reuters