WATCH: 'Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild': Netanyahu speaks to nation after Beirut strike

WATCH: 'Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild': Netanyahu speaks to nation after Beirut strike

AMICHAI STEIN

MIRIAM SELA-EITAM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation following the IDF's killing of Hezbollah's second-in-command and military commander Haytham Ali Tabtabai on Sunday afternoon.

“It is no coincidence that the US offered a financial reward for Tabatabai, who served as a senior commander in the Radwan force that planned to invade the Galilee," he said.

"Tabatabai is a mass murderer. His hands are soaked in the blood of many Israelis and Americans, and it is not for nothing that the US put a bounty of five million dollars on his head."

"The State of Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power. I expect the Lebanese government to act and meet its commitments.”

Netanyahu added that disarming Hezbollah was "only in this way can a better future be made possible for every citizen in Lebanon, and only in this way can good and secure neighborly relations be established between Israel and Lebanon."

Hezbollah has not commented on Tabatabai's fate, although Lebanese security sources confirmed he was the target of Israel's strike.

During last year's war, Tabtabai led Hezbollah's operations division and rose in rank as other top commanders were eliminated, the IDF's statement said.

Once the ceasefire came into force, Tabtabai was appointed chief of staff and "worked extensively to restore their readiness for war with Israel," according to the statement.

The Lebanese security source confirmed Tabtabai was swiftly promoted as other top Hezbollah officials were killed, and had been appointed chief of staff over the last year