Hezbollah confirms killing of its top leader Hashem Safieddine by Israel

Hezbollah has confirmed that Israel killed Hashem Safieddine, the apparent successor of its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike, without saying when or where it happened.

"We mourn... the head of the Executive Council of Hezbollah, his eminence the scholar Sayyed Hashem Safieddine," the Iran-backed group said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that was killed by "a criminal and aggressive Zionist raid" alongside other Hezbollah fighters.

Israel said on Tuesday that Safieddine had been killed in the air strike that targeted the southern suburb of Beirut around three weeks ago.

Israel has mounted a huge air campaign in Lebanon since last month against what it claims are Hezbollah targets in an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and the group since the start of Israel’s brutal offensive on Gaza.

At least 2,546 people have been killed and more than 11,860 injured in Israeli attacks since October last year, according to Lebanese health authorities.

Israel expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 this year by launching a ground assault into southern Lebanon.

Who was Safieddine

Safieddine briefly helped run Lebanon's strongest military and political force as the presumed successor to its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, until he, too, was tracked down by Israel.

Safieddine sat on the group's Jihad Council — the body responsible for its military operations. He also headed its executive council, overseeing financial and administrative affairs for the Iran-backed group.

Safieddine assumed a prominent role speaking for Hezbollah during the past year of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long avoided for security reasons.

He was the first Hezbollah official to speak in public after the group's Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Safieddine studied at religious seminaries in the Iranian city of Qom before returning to Lebanon in the 1990s to assume leadership responsibilities in the group.

His son, Rida, is married to the daughter of the late Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force until he was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020. His brother, Abdullah, serves as Hezbollah's representative in Tehran.

As executive council chief, Safieddine played a role some likened to that of prime minister of a government, responsible for an array of Hezbollah institutions involved in health care, education, culture, and construction, and other activities.

He led efforts to rebuild the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut after the group's 2006 war with Israel when swathes of the area were flattened by Israeli air strikes.