BEIRUT: Hezbollah confirmed on Wednesday that Israel killed Hashem Safieddine, the apparent successor of its slain leader Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike, without saying when or where it happened.

The announcement came a day after Israel said Hashem Safieddine was killed along with other Hezbollah leaders in an air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs three weeks ago.

“We mourn... the head of the Executive Council of Hezbollah, his eminence the scholar Sayyed Hashem Safieddine,” the Iran-backed group said in a statement, adding that he was killed by “a criminal and aggressive Zionist raid” alongside other Hezbollah fighters.

The deeply religious Safieddine, a cleric with family ties to Nasrallah, had been widely viewed as the most likely candidate for the party’s top job after the assassination of Nasrallah on Sept 27 in a huge Israeli air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Safieddine was viewed as the most likely candidate for party’s top job after Nasrallah’s assassination on Sept 27

Safieddine, a member of the group’s governing Shura Council, had strong ties to Iran after undergoing religious studies in Iran’s holy city of Qom.

The United States and Saudi Arabia had put him on their respective lists of designated “terrorists” in 2017.

Safieddine had been running Hezbollah alongside its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem since Nasrallah’s assassination and was expected to be formally elected as its next secretary general, although no official announcement had yet been made.

A relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine had sat on the group’s Jihad Council, the body responsible for its military operations. He was also head of its executive council, overseeing Hezbollah’s financial and administrative affairs.

Safieddine assumed a prominent role speaking for Hezbollah during the year of hostilities with Israel that ultimately led to his death, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.

Israel’s military said it had killed three Hezbollah commanders and some 70 fighters in southern Lebanon in the past 48 hours, a day after confirming it had killed Hashem Safieddine.

Israel’s Lebanon offensive has driven at least 1.2 million people from their homes and killed 2,530 people, including at least 63 over the past 24 hours, the Lebanese government said on Tuesday.

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, offered condolences on the death of Hezbollah leader Safieddine on the path to the liberation of Al-Quds.

“The Qassam Brigades commends the role of the martyr, leader Hashem Safieddine, in supporting the Palestinian people and their resistance. He is also remembered for his great contributions in building and strengthening the resistance front against the Zionist occupation over many long years.”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said on Wednesday it had attacked Israel’s port city of Eilat with drones twice, striking “vital” targets. However, Israeli military claimed it intercepted two drones which travelled over waters near Eilat.

The pro-Iranian militant group pledged to step up attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023.

The Islamic Resistance, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi militia, and various Shia Muslim armed groups in Iraq and Syria, known as the Axis of Resistance to Israel and US, have vowed to support the Palestinians in their fight against the US-backed Israel.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2024