Israel’s military says Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine, Hasan Nasrallah’s likely heir, has died

Israel confirmed on Tuesday that it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the heir apparent to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed earlier in an Israeli strike last month against the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group.

The army said Safieddine was killed in a strike three weeks ago in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the first confirmation of his death. Earlier this month, Israel said it had likely been removed.

There was no immediate response from Hezbollah to Israel’s statement that it had killed Safieddine.

Israel has launched a growing offensive after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah, which is recovering from a series of killings of its top commanders in Israeli airstrikes. The group is the most formidable of Iran’s proxy forces in the entire Middle East and has been acting in support of Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.

A relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine was appointed to his Jihad Council – the body responsible for its military operations – and to its executive council, which oversaw 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.

Israeli strikes have been hitting southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut, all Hezbollah strongholds. The group’s fighters have been trying to push back Israeli ground incursions.

So far, Israel has shown no sign of letting up in its campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon even after killing several leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, which lost Nasrallah, its powerful secretary general, in an attack air on September 27.

Diplomats say Israel wants to maintain a strong position before a new US administration takes over after the Nov. 5 election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

BLINKEN IN MIDDLE TOUR

Israel’s confirmation of Safieddine’s death came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to capitalize on the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, saying the release of the hostages from the October 7 attack and ending the war in Gaza.

After repeated futile attempts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Blinken was making his 11th trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war broke out, and his last before a presidential election that could upend the US politics.

Blinken was also looking for ways to defuse the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, where overnight at least 18 people, including four children, were killed and 60 injured in an Israeli airstrike near Beirut’s main state hospital.

Blinken faced an uphill battle on both fronts.

He expressed American hopes that the death of Hamas leader Sinwar, accused of unleashing a devastating year of war by planning the deadly attack from Gaza on Israeli territory on October 7 last year, would provide a new opportunity for peace.

“The Secretary stressed the need to capitalize on Israel’s successful action to bring Yahya Sinwar to justice, secure the release of all hostages, and end the conflict in Gaza in a way that provides lasting security for both Israelis as to the Palestinians,” the US State Department said. in a statement about the Jerusalem meetings.

In a statement issued by his office, Netanyahu said that the removal of Sinwar “may have a positive effect on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all the objectives of the war and the aftermath of the war.”

But there was no mention of a possible ceasefire after a year of war in which Hamas’ military capabilities have been badly degraded and Gaza has been largely reduced to rubble, with most of its 2.3 million of displaced Palestinians.

Israel’s Western allies see Sinwar’s killing last week as a possible breakthrough in providing political cover for Netanyahu’s far-right government to claim that its goals in Gaza have been achieved.

But Israel has maintained that it will not stop fighting until the Palestinian Islamist militant group has been completely destroyed as a military force and governing entity in Gaza.

For its part, Hamas has refused to release dozens of hostages in Gaza captured in its incursion into Israel on October 7, 2023 without Israel’s promise to end the war and withdraw from the territory .