BEIRUT: Hezbollah confirmed on Wednesday that Hashem Safieddine, the apparent successor to its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli strike, although details about the timing and location remain unclear.
This announcement follows Israel’s claim that Safieddine and other Hezbollah leaders were killed in an air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs three weeks ago.
In a statement, the Hezbollah group expressed its sorrow over the loss of “the head of the Executive Council of Hezbollah, his eminence the scholar Sayyed Hashem Safieddine,” describing his death as the result of a “criminal and aggressive Zionist raid” alongside other fighters.
A deeply religious cleric with familial ties to Nasrallah, Safieddine had been seen as the likely successor following Nasrallah’s assassination on September 27 during a significant Israeli air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
A member of Hezbollah’s governing Shura Council, Safieddine had strong connections to Iran, having studied in the holy city of Qom. In 2017, the United States designated him as a “terrorist.”
