Netanyahu confirms Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah's rumoured successor

Safieddine's death would be the latest shock to Hezbollah's top leadership as Israel began ground operations in Lebanon. He had been out of contact since Israel targeted an underground bunker in Beirut, where he was reportedly present with other Hezbollah officials.

Israel Hezbollah Conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday confirmed that Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine, the rumoured successor to slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike late last week, according to local media reports. Netanyahu also said  Israel had eliminated Safieddine's replacement.

Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiyeh, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, came under renewed strikes near midnight on Thursday after Israel ordered people to leave their homes in some areas, residents and security sources said. Safieddine was targeted in an underground bunker, according to Axios reporter Barak Ravid. Israel's military declined to comment.

This attempted assassination is the latest effort by Israel to systematically eliminate Hezbollah's leadership, after its biggest successes against the Lebanese militant group when it assassinated Nasrallah and several Hezbollah commanders within a week. Israel says its operations in Lebanon seek to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombardments during the Gaza war forced them to evacuate from its north.

Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the Safieddine, the likely successor to the Iran-backed group's slain leader, appeared to have been "eliminated". Safieddine has not been heard from publicly since another Israeli airstrike late last week.

"Hezbollah is an organisation without a head. Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated," Gallant told officers at the Israeli military's northern command centre, in a brief video segment distributed by the military. Safieddine has been a prime target for Israel, nurtured as an influential leader and potential heir to Nasrallah. 

Who is Hashem Safieddine?

Safieddine was born in the early 1960s in southern Lebanon and was one of Hezbollah's earliest members. He joined after the the Shiite Muslim group was formed in the 1980s during Lebanon's civil war with Iranian guidance, according to The New York Times. Safieddine rose quickly in Hezbollah's ranks alongside Nasrallah, playing the role of the group's political, spiritual and cultural leader along with overseeing its military activities.

Safieddine has sat on the group's Jihad Council - the body responsible for its military operations. He is also head of its executive council, overseeing financial and administrative affairs for the Iran-backed group. Safieddine assumed a prominent role speaking for Hezbollah during the past year of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long avoided for security reasons.

As executive council chief, Safieddine plays a role some likened to that of prime minister of a government, responsible for an array of Hezbollah institutions involved in health care, education, culture, and construction, and other activities. His son, Rida, is married to the daughter of the late Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force until he was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020. His brother, Abdullah, serves as Hezbollah's representative in Tehran.

Hezbollah steps up attack on Israel

Israel's military said on Tuesday it had deployed a fourth army division into south Lebanon, signalling an expanding ground offensive against Hezbollah, which fired almost 200 rockets into Israel by Tuesday, causing damage. Western powers are seeking a diplomatic solution, fearing the conflict could roil the wider, oil-producing Middle East.

The area of Israeli operations in Lebanon has been widened. The Israeli military said it was now conducting "limited, localised, targeted operations" in Lebanon's southwest, having previously announced such operations in the southeast. Overnight, Israel again bombed Beirut's southern suburbs where Hezbollah is headquartered and said it had killed Suhail Hussein Husseini, who was responsible for Hezbollah's budgeting and logistics.

The mushrooming Israeli-Hezbollah conflict has killed well over 1,000 people in Lebanon in the past two weeks and prompted the mass flight of more than a million. Hezbollah acting leader Naim Qassem said Hezbollah's capabilities were intact despite "painful blows" from Israel. "Dozens of cities are within range of the resistance's missiles. We assure you that our capabilities are fine."

(with agency input)

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