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24-10-2024
JERUSALEM/ BEIRUT: Israel on Tuesday confirmed it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the heir apparent to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was previously killed in an Israeli attack last month on the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.
The military said Safieddine was killed in a strike carried out three weeks ago in Beirut’s southern suburbs, its first confirmation of his death.
Earlier this month, Israel said he had probably been eliminated.
There was no immediate response from Hezbollah to Israel’s statement that it had killed Safieddine.
Israel has been carrying out an escalating offensive after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah, which is reeling from a spate of killings of its senior commanders in Israeli airstrikes. The group is the most formidably armed of Iran’s proxy forces across the Middle East and has been acting in support of Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.
A relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine was appointed to its Jihad Council, the body responsible for its military operations and to its executive council, overseeing Hezbollah’s financial and administrative affairs.
Safieddine assumed a prominent role speaking for Hezbollah during the last year of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.
A relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine was appointed to its Jihad Council, the body responsible for its military operations and to its executive council, overseeing Hezbollah’s financial and administrative affairs.
Safieddine assumed a prominent role speaking for Hezbollah during the last year of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.
Diplomats say Israel aims to lock in a strong position before a new US. administration takes over following the Nov. 5 election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.
Israel’s confirmation of Safieddine’s death came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to capitalise on the killing of Hamas’ leader Yahya Sinwar by securing the release of the Oct. 7 attack hostages and ending the war in Gaza.
After repeated abortive attempts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Blinken was making his 11th trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war erupted – and the last before a presidential election that could upend US policy.
Blinken was also seeking ways to defuse the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, where at least 18 people overnight were killed, including four children, and 60 injured by an Israeli airstrike near Beirut’s main state hospital.
Blinken faced an uphill struggle on both fronts.
He spelled out US hopes that the death of Hamas leader Sinwar blamed for triggering a year of devastating warfare by planning the deadly militant assault from Gaza on Israeli territory on Oct. 7 last year will provide a new opportunity for peace.
“The Secretary underscored the need to capitalise on Israel’s successful action to bring Yahya Sinwar to justice by securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza in a way that provides lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” the US State Department said in a statement on the Jerusalem meetings.
In a statement issued by his office, Netanyahu said Sinwar’s elimination “may have a positive effect on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all the goals of the war, and the day after the war”. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
