Israeli Army confirms killing Hezbollah’s new leader, Hashem Safieddine in airstrikes

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) on Tuesday confirmed the killing of the new Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine in an airstrike on Beirut.

Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, was presumed to be the successor of Hassan Nasrallah following his assassination.

According to the military, Safieddine was killed alongside the head of the terror group’s intelligence division, Hussein Ali Hazima, during the strike on October 4.

The strike had targeted Hezbollah’s underground intelligence headquarters in Beirut, which the army says was “in the heart of a civilian population” in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburb, known as Dahiyeh.

The IDF says that more than 25 members of Hezbollah’s intelligence division were at the headquarters when the strike was carried out, including other top commanders.

Safieddine had been out of contact since the strike, but only today the IDF says it could confirm his death.

In a post on X, Israeli Army said that it killed Safieddine as well as “Hossein Ali Al-Zima, head of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, killed in an attack in Dahiyah in Beirut, along with other commanders in Hezbollah”.

There has been no comment from Hezbollah yet on Israeli Army claims.

Safieddine, whom the US State Department designated as a terrorist in 2017, is a cousin of Nasrallah and, like him, is a cleric who wears the black turban denoting ostensible descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.