Hezbollah leader's expected successor killed in Israeli airstrike

Hezbollah on Wednesday confirmed one of its top officials, expected to be the group’s next leader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Hashem Safieddine, a powerful cleric within the Iranian-backed group’s upper ranks, was killed in a strike on an underground Hezbollah intelligence headquarters three weeks ago in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Israel's military said Tuesday.

In a statement, Hezbollah confirmed Safieddine’s death but did not specify the date or circumstances.

Safieddine, who served as the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, had been expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the militant group’s founders. Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month, also in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital.

Safieddine was widely seen as a likely heir to Nasrallah given his rank in the organization. The two also are cousins and Safieddine also sat on the Jihad Council, the arm responsible for Hezbollah’s military operations.

Thought to be around 60 years old, the United States designated Safieddine as a terrorist in 2017, according to a State Department profile.

The Israeli military said the airstrike that killed Safieddine was aimed at Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, where more than 25 of the group’s members were inside the underground headquarters.

The commander of the intelligence hub, Ali Hussein Hazima, was also killed in the strike, said Israeli army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, according to Reuters.

“We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership,” Halevi said. “We will reach anyone who threatens the security of the civilians of the State of Israel.”

Israel since September has greatly escalated its offensive in Lebanon, stepping up its barrage of airstrikes that have killed dozens of Hezbollah members and top leaders, significantly weakening its structure.

A total of 2,530 people have been killed and more than 11,800 wounded in the Israeli strikes in recent weeks, the Lebanese government said Tuesday.

Hezbollah and Israel for the past year have traded missile and drone attacks across the border with Lebanon — with the group in support of fellow Iranian proxy Hamas in the Gaza Strip — but Israel stepped up its intensity last month and launched a ground campaign into the country.

News of Safieddine’s death comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urge a ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza.