Israel’s military confirmed on Tuesday that it had “eliminated” Hezbollah’s Hashem Saffiedine, the heir apparent to leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an attack in a southern Beirut suburb three weeks ago.
“It can now be confirmed that Hashem Saffiedine, head of Hezbollah’s executive council, and Ali Hussein Hazima, head of Hezbollah’s intelligence directorate, were killed along with other Hezbollah commanders in an attack nearly three weeks ago,” the army said. a statement.
Hezbollah has not yet issued any statement regarding the claim.
On October 8, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the military had “taken out” Saffiedine, without specifically naming him.
Addressing the Lebanese people, Netanyahu said that Israeli forces killed “thousands of terrorists, including (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah and his replacements.”
Late Tuesday, the military said Israel’s air force had carried out a precision, intelligence-based strike on Hezbollah’s main intelligence headquarters in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyah, a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital three weeks ago.
The statement said that more than 25 Hezbollah militants were present at the headquarters during the attack, “including Bilal Saeb Ash, who was in charge of collecting aerial intelligence”.
Saffieddine, a member of Hezbollah’s decision-making body and a distant relative of Nasrallah, had been out of contact since the Israeli attack on Beirut weeks earlier, a high-level Hezbollah source said at the time.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP in early October that Saffieddin, a deeply religious cleric who had good relations with Hezbollah-backer Iran, was the “most likely” candidate for the party’s top post.
Saffieddin, with a gray beard and glasses, resembled his distant cousin Nasrallah, but was several years younger than him, in his late 50s or early 60s.
“We have reached out to Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership,” Israeli army chief Lt. Gen. Harji Halevi said in a statement late Tuesday after confirming Saffiedine’s death.
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