In a statement, the Israeli military said
strikes in the suburb of Dahiyeh had killed Hashem Safieddine and Ali Hussein
Hazima, the head of the militant group’s intelligence branch, three weeks ago.
The airstrike had targeted a meeting of
senior Hezbollah leaders. It was one of the heaviest bombardments to hit the
area known as the Dahiya since an Israeli assault killed Hezbollah’s longtime
leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Sept. 27.
Safieddine was the head of
Hezbollah’s highest political decision-making body, the executive council, and
was reportedly picked as the successor to Nasrallah some years ago. He was also
a cousin of the former secretary general.
His fate was unknown after Israeli
strikes on Dahiyeh on 3 October, which Israel said were targeting an
underground bunker where the senior leader was living.
Hezbollah had reportedly not been able to
re-establish contact with Safieddine since the strike and rescue workers were
prevented from reaching the site of the bombing.
With the killing of Safieddine, only Naim
Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, remains from
Hezbollah’s public-facing senior leadership.
Qassem has been the face of the group since
the assassination of Nasrallah.
Israeli strikes in recent months have
killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership, leaving the group in disarray.
The Beirut suburb where Safieddine was killed was pummeled by a series of fresh airstrikes on Tuesday. The Israeli military leveled a building in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut that it said housed Hezbollah facilities.
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