Israel confirms it has killed the heir apparent of the slain Hezbollah leader

Israel confirmed on Tuesday that it has killed Hashem Safieddine, the heir apparent to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed earlier last month in an Israeli attack on the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.

The military said Safieddine was killed in an attack carried out three weeks ago in Beirut’s southern suburbs, marking the first confirmation of his death. Earlier this month, Israel said he had likely been eliminated.

There was no immediate response from Hezbollah to Israel’s statement that it had killed Safieddine.

Israel is waging an escalating offensive after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah, which is reeling from a wave of killings of its senior commanders in Israeli airstrikes. The group is the most formidably armed Iranian proxy force in the Middle East, acting in support of Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.

Safieddine, a relative of Nasrallah, was appointed to the Jiha Council – the body responsible for its military operations – and to its executive council, which oversaw Hezbollah’s financial and administrative affairs.

Safieddine played a prominent role as spokesperson for Hezbollah during the last year of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.

Israeli attacks have ravaged southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut – all Hezbollah strongholds. The group’s fighters are trying to push back Israeli ground incursions.

Israel has so far shown no signs of softening in its campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, even after the assassination of several Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, who lost Nasrallah, its powerful secretary general, in an airstrike on September 27.

Diplomats say Israel is aiming to gain a strong position before a new US administration takes over after the Nov. 5 election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Blinken on tour through the Middle East

Israel’s confirmation of Safieddine’s death came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to capitalize on the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by releasing hostages from the October 7 attack and end the war in Gaza.

After repeated failed attempts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Blinken made his 11th trip to the Middle East since the outbreak of the Gaza war — and the last before a presidential election that will leave the U.S. could turn policy upside down.

Blinken also sought ways to defuse the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, where at least 18 people, including four children, were killed and 60 injured overnight by an Israeli airstrike near Beirut’s main state hospital.

Blinken faced an uphill battle on both fronts.

He expressed hope that the US hopes that the death of Hamas leader Sinwar – who was accused of triggering a year of devastating warfare by planning the deadly militant attack from Gaza into Israeli territory on October 7 last year – will be a will offer a new chance for peace.

“The Minister underlined the need to capitalize on Israel’s successful action to bring Yahya Sinwar to justice by securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza in a manner that provides lasting security for both Israelis and Palestinians,” the US State Department said. in a statement about the meetings in Jerusalem.

In a statement from his office, Netanyahu said Sinwar’s elimination “could have a positive effect on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all the objectives of the war and the day after the war.”

But there was no mention of a possible ceasefire after a year of war in which Hamas’s military capabilities have been sharply degraded and Gaza remains largely in ruins, with most of its 2.3 million Palestinians displaced.

Israel’s Western allies see Sinwar’s killing last week as a potential breakthrough by giving Netanyahu’s far-right government political cover to claim its objectives in Gaza have been achieved.

But Israel has insisted it will not stop fighting until the Palestinian Islamic militant group is completely destroyed as a military force and governing entity in Gaza.

For its part, Hamas has refused to release dozens of hostages in Gaza captured during the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, without an Israeli pledge to end the war and withdraw from the area.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Laila Bassam, Maya Gebeily and Amina Ismail in Beirut, Clauda Tanios and Nayera Abdullah in Dubai, Maayan Lubell and Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem, Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis in Washington, Thomas Escritt in Berlin; writing by Michael Georgy, Mark Heinrich and Deepa Babington; editing by Angus MacSwan, Peter Graff, Ros Russell and David Gregorio)

Israel confirms it has killed the heir apparent of the slain Hezbollah leader

Blinken on tour through the Middle East

By Sheisoe

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