The White House on Monday expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself following an IDF strike a day earlier in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah’s military chief of staff.
Asked during a briefing outside the White House whether US President Donald Trump supports the targeted assassination of Haytham Ali Tabatabai, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had not spoken to him specifically about the strike.
“But of course, the president supports Israel’s right to defend itself and to take out any terrorist threats in the region,” Leavitt added.
Channel 12 news reported on Sunday that the US had known for several days that Israel was planning to escalate its strikes in Lebanon, but was not alerted in advance about the specific strike on Tabatabai.
The US State Department designated him as a terrorist and sanctioned him in 2016, and the US Treasury offered a $5 million reward for information on him.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
In a statement to the press Sunday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tabatabai had been leading the terror group’s efforts to rearm.
“Israel will not let Hezbollah rebuild its strength,” Netanyahu vowed, calling the senior Hezbollah official “a mass murderer” with the blood of many Israelis and Americans on his hands.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, November 16, 2025. (Screenshot/GPO)
Netanyahu said that he “expects the Lebanese government to fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah.”
“Only in this way will every citizen of Lebanon have a better future, and only in this way can peaceful and secure neighborly relations between Israel and Lebanon exist,” he said.
Israel announced on Sunday that it had killed Tabatabai in a targeted airstrike in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, and his death was later confirmed by Hezbollah.
Tabatabai was considered second only to Secretary-General Naim Qassem in the Iran-backed terror group’s command structure.
The IDF said Tabatabai was a “veteran and central operative in the terror organization,” after joining its ranks in the 1980s and holding several senior roles, including commander of the elite Radwan Force and head of Hezbollah’s operations in Syria.
During the war, the IDF said, Tabatabai was appointed to head Hezbollah’s operations division, responsible for “consolidating the organization’s situational picture and force buildup.”
People gather at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment in the southern suburb of Beirut, on November 23, 2025. (AP/Bilal Hussein)
Tabatabai took on a more central role after Israel wiped out much of the terror group’s senior leadership and killed two of his predecessors during an escalation in fighting in 2024.
Israel has been escalating its strikes on Hezbollah in recent weeks, accusing the terror group of violating the year-old ceasefire and increasingly attempting to rebuild its capabilities, and expressing frustration at lagging Lebanese efforts to disarm the group.
The strike on Sunday came almost exactly a year after the US-brokered truce in Lebanon took effect on November 27, 2024.
Left: Rescuers search for survivors at the site of an airstrike that killed Hezbollah’s military chief in a residential building in Beirut’s southern Haret Hreik neighborhood on November 23, 2025. (Ibrahim Amro/AFP); Right: Hezbollah military chief Haytham Ali Tabatabai, in a poster issued by the terror group after his death. (Hezbollah Media Office)
Tabatabai’s assassination came in response to “Hezbollah’s repeated violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and the 2024 ceasefire understandings, as well as the threat he posed to Israel and to regional stability,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said after the strike.
The Lebanese government has failed to address Hezbollah’s violations, said Israel, while Hezbollah is working to “restore and expand” its military capabilities, the ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry maintained Israel “is committed to the full implementation of the ceasefire understandings and has reported hundreds of violations through the international mechanism led by the United States.”
Watch DocuNation Season 3: The Heart of Israel
when you join the ToI Community
In this season of DocuNation, you can stream six outstanding Israeli documentaries with English subtitles and then join a live online discussion with the filmmakers. The selected films show Israel beyond the conflict: a place of storytellers and musicians, of dreamers, makers, and communities rooted in meaning and trust.
When you watch DocuNation, you’re also supporting Israeli creators at a time when it’s increasingly difficult for them to share their work globally.
To learn more about DocuNation: The Heart of Israel, click here.
Support ToI and get DocuNation
Support ToI and get DocuNation
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You appreciate our journalism
You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, in a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you’ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel