There is no place in Middle East that long arm of Israel will not reach: Netanyahu

Tel Aviv: Following the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a precision strike by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning to Iran’s Ayatollah regime and asserted that those who target Israel will face consequences andthat no location in Iran or the Middle East is beyond Israel’s reach.

Netanyahu made his first public comments on Saturday after an Israeli airstrike killed Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, in Beirut.

“There is no place in Iran or the Middle East that the long arm of Israel will not reach, and today you already know how true this is,” he added.

Speaking from Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Netanyahu said Israel’s assassination of the Hezbollah leader “settled accounts with those responsible for the murder of countless Israelis and many citizens of other countries, including hundreds of Americans and dozens of Frenchmen”.

The Israeli Prime Minister called Nasrallah’s killing “a necessary condition for achieving the goals we have set”.

The Israeli Prime Minister was referring to tens of thousands of Israelis who have been displaced by cross-border fire in the north of the country. Last week, Israel made returning residents to their homes in the north an explicit war aim.

“As long as Nasrallah lives, he would quickly restore the capabilities we took away from Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said.

“That’s why I gave the directive — and Nasrallah is no longer with us,” he added.

Netanyahu made no reference to a US-led ceasefire proposal for the Israel-Lebanon border in his remarks, which come just a day after he made a combative speech at the United Nations General Assembly, vowing to continue the fight with Hezbollah — and swiping directly at Iran.

“I say to the Ayatollah’s regime: whoever beat us, we will beat them,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that Israel had arrived at a “historic turning point”.

“We are determined to continue to strike at our enemies, return our residents to their homes, and return all our abductees. We do not forget them for a moment,” he added.