IDF says it killed Hassan Nasrallah’s likely successor

Safieddine was a first cousin of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September. The IDF said Safieddine frequently served as acting secretary-general of Hezbollah when Nasrallah was outside Lebanon and was his presumed successor.

Hashem Safieddine’s brother, Abdullah Safieddine, is the terror group’s representative in Tehran. Hashem’s eldest son, Reza, is married to a daughter of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, killed by the United States in a 2020 airstrike in Iraq.

Hashem Safieddine’s death, which Israeli leaders first said was “likely” back on October 8, is the latest blow to Hezbollah’s leadership cadre.

In September, more than 3,000 Hezbollah operatives were wounded when their pagers and walkie-talkies exploded. Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for that operation, though Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the day after the mass beeper explosions that Israel’s security services have achieved “very impressive” results.

On September 27, Israel killed Nasrallah in an airstrike on Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in Dahiyeh, on the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.

Hashem Safieddine was believed to be a potential successor to Nasrallah. With his killing, Gallant said on October 8 that Hezbollah has “no one to make decisions, no one to act.”

“The actions we are taking are being observed all over the Middle East,” Gallant said. “When the smoke in Lebanon clears, they will realise in Iran that they have lost their most valuable asset, which is Hezbollah.”