Hashem Safieddine, Hezbollah’s Chief Nasrallah’s Presumed Successor, Killed In Israeli Airstrike In Beirut: Report
Hashem Safieddine, the likely successor to Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, was killed along with his companions in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut, Saudi news outlet Al Hadath reported on Saturday.
Al Hadath also claimed that Israel had confirmed Hashem Safieddine’s death. However, Israel is yet announce it officially. Israeli media, citing Lebanese sources, reported that Israel allegedly targeted Hashem Safieddine in Beirut’s Dahieh suburb overnight between Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, Israel said it had targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the southern suburbs and was assessing the damage after a series of strikes on senior figures in the group.
US news portal Axios cited three Israeli officials as saying that Hashem Safieddine had been targeted in an underground bunker in Beirut on Thursday night, but his fate was not clear.
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz posted a photo of Safieddine and Nasrallah on X on Saturday and urged Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to “take your proxies and leave Lebanon”.
Israel has eliminated much of Hezbollah’s senior military leadership, including secretary general Hassan Nasrallah in an air attack on September 27.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a rare appearance leading Friday prayers, told a huge crowd in Tehran that Iran and its regional allies would not back down.
Lebanon’s government said more than 2,000 people have been killed there in the past year, most in the past two weeks. Strikes on medical teams and facilities, including the Lebanese Red Cross, Lebanese public hospitals and rescue workers affiliated to Hezbollah, have also increased.
The Lebanese government said more than 1.2 million Lebanese have been forced from their homes, and the United Nations says most displacement shelters in the country are full. Many had gone north to Tripoli or to neighbouring Syria, but an Israeli strike on Friday closed the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.