Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel ‘settled accounts’ with Hassan Nasrallah’s killing: ‘If someone rises up to kill you…’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that assassinating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah became an “essential condition” for Israel to achieve its war goals. "If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first," Netanyahu said in his first public remarks since Nasrallah's killing.

"Yesterday, the State of Israel eliminated the arch-murderer Hassan Nasrallah. We have settled accounts with someone who was responsible for the murders of countless Israelis and many nationals of other countries, including hundreds of Americans and dozens of French," Netanyahu said.

The Israeli Prime Minister said the "elimination" of Nasrallah "is a necessary condition in achieving the objectives". The Prime Minister vowed to attack Iran-backed Hezbollah until he is able to "return the residents of the north safely to their homes..." He said Nasrallah's killing "also advances the return of our hostages in the south."

"As long as Nasrallah was alive, he would have quickly rebuilt the capabilities we took from Hezbollah. Therefore, I gave the directive – and Nasrallah is no longer with us," Benjamin Netanyahu said.

What we know so far about Hassan Nasrallah's killing:

1. Lebanon's Hezbollah group earlier confirmed that its leader and one of its founding members, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut.

2. According to news agency PTI, Nasrallah, linked by Israel to numerous deadly attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets, was on Israel's kill list for decades. His assassination is by far the biggest and most consequential of Israel's targeted killings in years, and significantly escalates the war in the Middle East. Hezbollah is backed by Iran, Israel's chief regional rival.

3. Nasrallah's death is a major blow to both Hezbollah and Iran, removing an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Tehran's network of allied groups in the Arab world.

4. The Palestinian militant group Hamas sent condolences to its ally, Hezbollah, and said “assassinations will only increase the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine in determination and resolve”. Iran's supreme leader announced five days of public mourning and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Nasrallah “the flag-bearer of resistance” in the region.

5. Iran's UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani wrote a letter to the heads of the United Nations and the Security Council on Saturday calling for an emergency council meeting over the attack that killed Nasrallah.

“Using US-supplied thousand-pound bunker busters,” he wrote, Israel killed Nasrallah and Iranian Gen, Abbas Nilforushan, among others. He warned Israel not to attack any of its diplomatic or consular premises, or its representatives. “Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent rights under international law to take every measure in defense of its vital national and security interests,” Iravani wrote.

6. US President Joe Biden described Nasrallah's death as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the US fully supported Israel's right to self-defence. But when asked if an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon was inevitable, Biden was quoted by Reuters as saying: "It's time for a ceasefire."

(With inputs from agencies)