IDF says it has killed Hassan Nasrallah’s likely successor

The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it had killed a group of Hezbollah commanders, including Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, in an airstrike on Beirut earlier this month.

“The terrorists were eliminated in an attack carried out about three weeks ago in the area of ​​Dahiyeh, a major Hezbollah terrorist stronghold in Beirut,” the IDF said.

“The Israeli Air Force carried out a precise, intelligence-driven attack on Hezbollah’s main intelligence headquarters, which was deliberately located underground among the civilian population in the Dahiyeh.”

The attack killed 25 Hezbollah terrorists, including Safieddine and Ali Hussein Hazima, commander of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, the IDF said.

Safieddine was a first cousin of Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September. The IDF said Safieddine often served as acting secretary general of Hezbollah when Nasrallah was outside Lebanon and was his presumed successor.

Hashem Safieddine’s brother, Abdullah Safieddine, is the terror group’s representative in Tehran. Hashem’s eldest son, Reza, is married to a daughter of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the United States in an airstrike in Iraq in 2020.

Hashem Safieddine’s death, which Israeli leaders first said was “probable” on October 8, is the latest blow to Hezbollah’s leadership.

In September, more than 3,000 Hezbollah operatives were injured when their pagers and walkie-talkies exploded. Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for that operation, although Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the day after the massive pager explosions that Israeli security services had achieved “very impressive” results.

On September 27, Israel killed Nasrallah in an airstrike on Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in Dahiyeh, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.

Hashem Safieddine was considered a potential successor to Nasrallah. With his killing, Gallant said on October 8 that Hezbollah “has no one to make decisions, no one to act.”

“The actions we are taking are being seen across the Middle East,” Gallant said. “When the smoke clears in Lebanon, they will realize in Iran that they have lost their most valuable asset, which is Hezbollah.”