Israel claims to have killed Hezbollah official anticipated to be group’s subsequent chief

File image of Hezbollah senior official Sayyed Hashem Safieddine
| Picture Credit score: Reuters

The Israeli army stated Tuesday (October 22, 2024) that certainly one of its airstrikes outdoors Beirut earlier this month killed a high Hezbollah official who had been extensively anticipated to be the group’s subsequent chief.

There was no rapid affirmation from the militant group in regards to the destiny of Hashem Safieddine.

Safieddine, a strong cleric inside the social gathering ranks, was anticipated to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of many group’s founders, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September.

Israel stated Safieddine was killed by an airstrike in early October in a southern suburb of Beirut. Round 25 different Hezbollah leaders have been killed in the course of the strike, Israel stated.

Israeli strikes in latest months have killed a lot of Hezbollah’s high management, leaving the group in disarray.

The Beirut suburb the place Safieddine was killed was pummeled by a sequence of contemporary airstrikes on Tuesday. The Israeli army leveled a constructing within the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut that it stated housed Hezbollah services.

The airstrike got here 40 minutes after Israel issued an evacuation warning for 2 buildings within the space that it stated have been utilized by Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s chief spokesman, Mohammed Afif, stated the group was behind the Saturday drone assault on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dwelling within the coastal city of Caesarea. He hinted that it’d try future strikes on Netanyahu’s dwelling. Israel has stated neither the prime minister nor his spouse have been dwelling on the time of the assault.