Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to confirm on Tuesday evening that Israel had successfully assassinated projected new Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine, who was targeted in an airstrike in Beirut last Thursday, and claimed Israel has also killed the next in line for the job.

In an English-language video message addressed to the Lebanese public, Netanyahu said that Israel has “degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities; we took out thousands of terrorists, including [longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah himself, and Nasrallah’s replacement, and his replacement’s replacement.”

“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been in many, many years,” said the premier.

Netanyahu did not identify by name any of the successors he said had been killed, although Safieddine had been widely considered to be next in line for the position of secretary-general. Hezbollah has not publicly confirmed his death, and the IDF spokesman declined Tuesday evening to conclusively say that Safieddine had been killed.

“We struck Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut… this is the headquarters of the head of the intelligence division, Abu Abdullah Mortada,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in response to a question from a reporter at a press conference. “With him, we know that Hashem Safieddine was there. The results of this strike are still being looked into, Hezbollah is trying to hide the details. When we know, we will update the public.”

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