From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
IDF says it has confirmed presumed Nasrallah successor Safieddine was killed in Oct. 4 strike
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The IDF announces that Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut earlier this month.
Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, was presumed to be the successor of Hassan Nasrallah following his assassination.
According to the military, Safieddine was killed alongside the head of the terror group’s intelligence division, Hussein Ali Hazima, during the strike on October 4.
The strike had targeted Hezbollah’s underground intelligence headquarters in Beirut, which the army says was “in the heart of a civilian population” in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburb, known as Dahiyeh.
The IDF says that more than 25 members of Hezbollah’s intelligence division were at the headquarters when the strike was carried out, including other top commanders.
Safieddine had been out of contact since the strike, but only today the IDF says it could confirm his death. Hezbollah has not yet announced his death.
Safieddine, whom the US State Department designated as a terrorist in 2017, is a cousin of Nasrallah and, like him, is a cleric who wears the black turban denoting ostensible descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.
Agencies contributed to this report.
