Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday that Hezbollah’s intended replacement of its former leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed late last month, has also been “taken out.”

“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years,” Netanyahu said in a message tailored directly to the “people of Lebanon.”

“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities, we took out thousands of terrorists, including [former Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah himself, and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of his replacement.”

BIDEN WHITE HOUSE HAS ‘VERY LOW’ TRUST IN NETANYAHU REGIME, URGES TRANSPARENCY: REPORT

Netanyahu said Iran has “conquered” Lebanon to ensure Hezbollah serves Tehran’s interests in the region by turning it into a “stockpile of ammunition and weapons” serving as a pseudo “Iranian military base” on Israel’s border. 

“Now you, the Lebanese people, you stand at a significant crossroads. It is your choice,” he continued. “You can now take back your country. You can return it to a path of peace and prosperity.”

“If you don’t, Hezbollah will continue to try to fight Israel from densely populated areas at your expense,” the prime minister added. “Free your country from Hezbollah.”

Netanyahu did not explicitly say what it would take to stop Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, but earlier on Tuesday the group’s deputy leader Naim Qassem suggested he may be open to a cease-fire without the inclusion of Gaza in the negotiations. 

Netanyahu’s announcement regarding the death of Hashem Safieddine, who sat as the head of Hezbollah’s executive council and was most likely slated to be the group’s next leader, comes as Israeli forces expanded their incursion westward along the border in Lebanon.

1 YEAR AFTER HEZBOLLAH STRIKES, ISRAEL REINFORCES TROOPS AND QUESTIONS MOUNT OVER ‘LIMITED’ OPERATION

Though Safieddine was not as well-known as Nasrallah, who served as the leader of Hezbollah for more than 30 years, his close ties to Iran and his outspoken behavior following the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7,2023 cemented him as a top target of Jerusalem’s.

It is not clear how or where Safieddine was allegedly killed, though the announcement of his death followed an update provided by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) which said “hundreds of terrorists” had been “eliminated” since the 98th Brigade first entered Lebanon last week. 

The brigade, which is made up of paratroopers and commandos as well as top soldiers of the 7th Brigade and the Yahalom Unit, has been targeting and dismantling Hezbollah strongholds, weapons depots and tunnel routes used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces near the border with Israel. 

A photographer documents damage of a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb of Lebanon on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024.  (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

The IDF has said it will carry out a “limited, localized, targeted” operation in Lebanon, but as Israeli forces continue to hit Hezbollah strongholds well north of the border including the capital city of Beirut, concerns are mounting that Lebanon could see similar destruction to that caused in Gaza, with one U.N. official referring to the strategy of bombardment as the “spiral of doom,” reported multiple outlets Tuesday.

Internally displaced people from southern Lebanon have been pouring into Beirut following Israel’s increase in strikes three weeks ago, followed by the incursion earlier this month. 

Beirut Mayor Abdallah Darwich urged a cease-fire to be reached between Hezbollah and Israel and told the BBC on Tuesday there was “no safe place in Beirut,” warning that the capital city had reached the “limit of its tolerance.”

“You do not know who is living in this building or that building, so you do not know if there is a target there,” he said. “You can no longer say Beirut is safe. Where the next Israeli target is, nobody knows.”

Roughly 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel escalated last month. More than 400,000 people have fled Lebanon into Syria, and roughly 1,400 people have been killed based on numbers provided by the Lebanese Health Ministry and the number of combatants believed to have been killed by Israel. Some 70,000 Israelis have been forced out of the country’s northern communities since the start of the conflict. 

The popular social media platform TikTok has been accused of harming and failing to protect young people in a slew of new lawsuits filed by several US states.

The lawsuits, filed on Tuesday in New York, California, and 11 other states, as well as the District of Columbia, add to continuing legal challenges the Chinese-owned company is already embroiled in in the United States. The latest filings accuse the company of intentionally using addictive software to keep children watching as long as possible, as well as of misrepresenting the effectiveness of its content moderation.

TikTok has rejected the allegations “many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading”. It said that it was disappointed the states chose to sue “rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industrywide challenges”.

The platform’s parent company, ByteDance, is also fighting proposed legislation that could ban the app in the US. The company has previously said that it strongly disagrees with allegations it fails to protect children, and has said that it offers “robust safeguards for teens and parents”.

US legislators have argued that the app could allow the Chinese government to access user data and influence Americans through its wildly popular algorithm. The White House has backed the bill.

Legislators and the White House, however, are at odds with many of TikTok’s 170 million US users – representing roughly half the country – as well as civil liberties and digital rights groups who say a ban would infringe on freedom of speech.

In June, a coalition of civil rights groups, including the Asian American Foundation and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, argued that TikTok was vital for the visibility of marginalised groups.

“TikTok is a modern-day digital town square that empowers diverse communities, often neglected by traditional media outlets, to share their underrepresented voices with people across America and the world,” lawyers representing the coalition wrote in a court filing.

The American Civil Liberties Union has also attacked attempts to shut down TikTok, saying that politicians were “trying to trade our First Amendment rights for cheap political points”.

“Whether it’s watching cooking tutorials, discussing the news of the day, or livestreaming protests, we have a right to use TikTok and other platforms to exchange our thoughts, ideas, and opinions with people around the world,” the ACLU said.

‘Dangerous by design’

The latest lawsuits accuse TikTok of seeking to maximise the amount of time users spend on the app to target them with ads.

“TikTok cultivates social media addiction to boost corporate profits,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “TikTok intentionally targets children because they know kids do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.”

“Young people are struggling with their mental health because of addictive social media platforms like TikTok,” echoed New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Washington’s lawsuit also accused TikTok of facilitating sexual exploitation of underage users, saying TikTok’s live streaming and virtual currency “operate like a virtual strip club with no age restrictions.”

“TikTok’s platform is dangerous by design,” said Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb. “It’s an intentionally addictive product that is designed to get young people addicted to their screens.”

TikTok says that it provides safety features including default screentime limits and privacy defaults for minors under 16.

Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington state also sued on Tuesday. Other states, including Utah and Texas, had already sued the company. The US Department of Justice also filed its own lawsuit against TikTok earlier this year for allegedly failing to protect children’s privacy on the app.