On Tuesday, the IDF confirmed that several weeks ago, Hashem Safieddine, the cousin and presumed successor of the recently killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an airstrike near Beirut. In addition to him, 25 Hezbollah militants present at the meeting also died.
"We have reached Nasrallah, his successor, and most of Hezbollah's top leadership," said the statement from the Israeli armed forces general staff. "We will reach anyone who threatens the security of the State of Israel's civilians."
As stated in the general staff's statement, for many years, Safieddine led terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and participated in Hezbollah's central decision-making processes.
Hashem Safieddine was one of the earliest members of Hezbollah, joining the Shiite group after it was established under Iran's leadership in the 1980s during the Lebanese civil war. In May 2017, the United States and Saudi Arabia included Safieddine in the list of terrorists. As reported by The New York Times, the State Department called him a "senior leader" in Hezbollah's executive council, which oversees the group's "political, organizational, social, and educational activities."
Today, the Israeli military also stated that in the last 48 hours, they eliminated three Hezbollah commanders and about 70 militants in southern Lebanon.
Photo: Reuters