The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has announced that it eliminated the presumed successor to deceased Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike earlier this month. Hashem Safieddine was killed in Beirut alongside the group’s intelligence chief, the IDF said.
“It can now be confirmed that in an attack approximately three weeks ago, Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, and Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of Hezbollah’s Intelligence Directorate, were killed along with other Hezbollah commanders,” the IDF said in a statement on Tuesday.
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The attack took place on October 4 in the Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a predominantly Shia area and Hezbollah stronghold.
Israeli jets fired missiles at Hezbollah’s underground intelligence headquarters, located in a civilian area of Dahieh, the IDF said. “More than 25 terrorists” were in the headquarters at the time of the strike, the IDF added, without confirming how many of that number had been killed or injured.
Media reports at the time of the strike noted that the chances of anyone in the blast zone surviving the attack were “almost zero,” quoting Lebanese officials. Al-Arabiya reported Safieddine’s death within hours, but the IDF did not issue a formal confirmation until Tuesday.
Before Nasrallah’s death, Safiedine was often described as the second most senior member of Hezbollah. Safiedine, a 60-year-old cleric and cousin of Nasrallah, was widely expected to assume leadership of the organization after the IDF assassinated Nasrallah in an airstrike in Dahieh in September.
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Hezbollah, however, downplayed these rumors. In a statement released in late September, the paramilitary group said that “news circulated by some media outlets about organizational procedures within the Hezbollah leadership after the martyrdom of… the Secretary-General is of no importance and cannot be relied upon.”
Fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has intensified since the deaths of Nasrallah and Safiedine, with the militants announcing last week that they had entered “a new and escalatory phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy.” Rocket attacks on northern Israel intensified over the weekend, and Hezbollah claimed responsibility for targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence with an explosive-laden drone on Saturday.
Israeli forces waged a low-intensity operation against Hezbollah fighters along the Israel-Lebanon border until September, when the apparent Israeli sabotage of thousands of Hezbollah communications devices signaled the start of a major air campaign in Lebanon. A ground invasion followed shortly afterwards, and the death toll in Lebanon currently stands at over 2,400 people according to the country’s Health Ministry.
The IDF claims to have killed more than 1,500 Hezbollah operatives since the Israel-Hamas war began last year, but the Lebanese militants put the figure closer to 500. The IDF has named 43 soldiers killed in border clashes and ground operations in Lebanon, but Hezbollah maintains that Israel’s true losses are significantly higher.