The man reportedly designated to take over as Hezbollah chief is dead, killed in an Israeli airstrike. News reports quoting Lebanese media, said Hashem Safieddine died in a series of explosions that rocked a Beirut suburb.
The intensity of the explosions were said to be far larger than the strike which killed Safieddine’s predecessor Hassan Nasrallah on Oct 27th.
The reports said Israel struck ten times on Thursday, targeting an underground bunker where Safieddine was attending a meeting. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah has confirmed his death.
Israel has however confirmed the death of the Hezbollah communications chief Mohammad Rashid Skaafi on Thursday. It was not clear if Skaafi was in the same bunker or attending the same meeting that Safieddine was.
Safieddine is on the US State Department terrorist list since 2017. He is a member of the Jihad Council which directs Hezbollah’s military operations, and also heads the group’s s executive council which oversees political affairs.
His links with Iran are close. His son is married to the daughter of the late Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, killed four years ago at Baghdad Airport in a strike authorised by former President Donald Trump.
Safieddine has not been seen in public since Nasrallah’s assassination and reports say Hezbollah was not inclined to name him secretary-general for fear he would become an Israeli target.
“Appointing a new secretary general could be dangerous if Israel assassinate’s him right after,” Ali al-Amin, the editor-in-chief of the Janoubia news portal was quoted by Reuters as saying. “The group can’t risk more chaos by appointing someone only to see him killed.”
Other reports say Nasrallah was “temporarily buried” at a secret location. The concern in Hezbollah was that a public funeral may provoke an Israeli hit.
Several other commanders have also been quietly buried in temporary locations and proper religious ceremonies will be held only after the war is over.
