(Bloomberg) -- Hezbollah announced that Hashem Safieddine, a likely successor to assassinated chief Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli air strike around three weeks ago.
Israel had said earlier on Tuesday it had confirmation of the death of Safieddine, who was the head of the Lebanese militant group’s executive council.
The confirmation, on Telegram, is yet another blow to Hezbollah, which has seen almost all its leaders killed by Israeli strikes in recent weeks.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and triggered a war in Gaza. Hezbollah is, like Hamas, backed by Iran and considered a terrorist group by the US and other countries.
Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah last month, saying diplomatic efforts by the likes of the US and France had failed to stop the group’s missile and drone attacks. It now has thousands of troops in southern Lebanon fighting Hezbollah.
The Lebanese government, which has little sway over Hezbollah, is trying to secure a cease-fire.
Safieddine was a key player in Hezbollah’s founding in the early 1980s and headed its executive council from 1992. He was a cousin of Nasrallah and the pair studied Shiite theology together in the Iranian city of Qom.
Born in Lebanon in 1964, Safieddine was named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US State Department in 2017. His son Reda is married to the daughter of Qassem Soleimani, the former Iranian commander assassinated by the US in 2020 under the orders of former President Donald Trump. His brother Abdullah heads Hezbollah in Tehran.
For three decades, Safieddine has been a key player in Hezbollah, which is also a political party with substantial support among Shiite Muslims in Lebanon. He managed day-to-day operations and financial affairs while leaving strategic decisions to Nasrallah, according to pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat.
Nasrallah had been been at the helm of Hezbollah for 32 years. Hezbollah hasn’t named a formal successor.
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