Israel's Netanyahu says slain Hezbollah chief's successor is dead

Israel’s prime minister said Tuesday that his country’s military has killed the presumed successor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack in Beirut on September 27.

Hashem Safieddine was Nasrallah’s cousin and a senior official in the organization and expected to replace him. He has not been heard from since last week, when Israel launched a series of intense air strikes on the Beirut suburb that is Hezbollah’s stronghold.

"We've degraded Hezbollah's capabilities,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message addressed to “the people of Lebanon.” “We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's replacement and the replacement of the replacement."

There was no immediate response from Hezbollah, which usually confirms the deaths of its top people.

Netanyahu said Israel will “do whatever is necessary to return our people safely to their homes” in the north of the country, where they have been subjected to Hezbollah rocket fire since October 8, 2024. At least 49 people have been killed on the Israeli side of the border in the past year. More than 500 were killed on the Lebanese side during the same period.

“Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel also has a right to win! And Israel will win!” the prime minister said.

Israel’s air force has been pounding Beirut’s southern suburbs nightly for the past two weeks, targeting what it says are Hezbollah terrorists, their intelligence headquarters, infrastructure and weapons depots. Most residents have been displaced to overcrowded, makeshift shelters, while others are sleeping along the Beirut waterfront and in the city’s main square.

In the south of the country, along the border with northern Israel, the IDF deployed a fourth division of troops and said they expanded their operations toward southwest Lebanon, aimed at pushing Hezbollah militants back from the border.

Monday evening, the Israel Defense Forces issued warnings to fishermen and other people in the area of Lebanon’s Awali River, banning them from the beach and the sea in that area and south of it “until further notice.” The river flows into the Mediterranean near the southern city of Sidon.

Earlier Tuesday, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said in televised remarks that the group supports efforts by their political ally, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, to secure a halt in fighting. Qassem added that the group remains organized and has overcome “painful blows.”

Hezbollah said it fired rockets Tuesday at the northern Israeli city of Haifa, while Israel said it intercepted dozens of them and attacked several Hezbollah rocket launchers.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the situation in the Middle East is “worsening by the hour.” He told reporters at the United Nations that attacks in Lebanon, including on civilians, are threatening the entire region.

“We are on the verge of an all-out war in Lebanon – with already devastating consequences, but there is still time to stop,” he said. “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected.”

War enters second year

Israelis held somber ceremonies Monday to mark the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel. They also took about 250 people hostage, with around 100 still being held and about one-third of those believed to be dead.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said Monday Israel would achieve its goals of bringing the remaining hostages home and ending Hamas’ rule in Gaza, eliminating any future threat from Gaza to Israel, and returning the residents of the south and the north safely to their homes.

In northern Gaza Tuesday, the Israeli military said it was operating in the area of the Jabalya refugee camp and told residents to immediately evacuate southward.

“In the near future, the 162nd Division will operate in that area with force from the air and on the ground,” Arabic IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X.

Israel’s military campaign of air and ground attacks in Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 97,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between militants and civilians, but has said just more than half were women and children.

U.N. chief Guterres was critical of how Israel has prosecuted the war in Gaza, including striking residential areas, the displacement of virtually the entire population, the cutting off of electricity for the past year, and restricting fuel and commercial goods entering Gaza.

“The conclusion is clear,” he said. “There is something fundamentally wrong in the way this war is being conducted.”

He said international law is clear – civilians must be respected and protected and their essential needs must be met. He said hostages must be released.

Israel accuses Hamas of hiding its command centers and other military operations in civilian sites.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah have been designated as terrorist organizations by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Israel and others.

VOA U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer and VOA reporter Natasha Mozgovaya contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.