Unclear if Hashem Safieddine hurt; NYT says he was meeting other Hezbollah leaders in underground bunker; IDF says strike targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence HQ; drone from east shot down over Beit She’an valley.
Israel reportedly targeted the presumed successor to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a heavy airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs around midnight Thursday, just under a week after the head of the Iran-backed terror group was killed in an Israeli attack.
Both the Axios news site and The New York Times identified Hashem Safieddine as the target of the strike, with the latter outlet citing three Israeli officials saying he was attending a meeting with other senior Hezbollah leaders in an underground bunker.
It was unclear if Safieddine was harmed in the strike.
The IDF said Friday morning that the airstrike in Beirut targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters. The military did not disclose who was at the underground bunker.
There was no immediate reaction from Hezbollah.
As head of the executive council, Safieddine oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs. He also sits on the Jihad Council, which manages the group’s military operations.
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. Safieddine’s family ties and physical resemblance to Nasrallah, as well as his religious status as a descendant of Mohammed, would all count in his favor to succeed the slain arch-terrorist.
He was reportedly targeted amid renewed air raids in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh after Israel ordered people to leave their homes in parts of the district.
“Israel struck the southern suburbs 11 consecutive times,” a source close to Hezbollah said on condition of anonymity.
AFP correspondents in the capital and beyond heard loud bangs that made car alarms go off and buildings shake. About an hour later, AFP journalists heard several explosions coming from the direction of the southern suburbs after the IDF ordered residents of the Hadath neighborhood to evacuate.
AFP footage showed giant balls of flame rising from the targeted site with thick smoke billowing and flares shooting out.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said “more than 10 consecutive strikes have been recorded so far, in one of the strongest raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israeli war on Lebanon.”
The strikes echoed to mountain regions outside Beirut, the NNA said.
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