Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, that his appointment was “not for long”.

“Temporary appointment. Not for long,” Gallant wrote in a post on X alongside a photograph of Qassem, whom Hezbollah had earlier named as assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah’s successor.

In a separate post in Hebrew, Gallant wrote that the “countdown has begun”.