On Tuesday, Israel confirmed it had killed Hashem Saffieddin, the heir apparent to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was previously killed in an Israeli strike last month against the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group.
The military said Safieddine was killed in a strike three weeks ago in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the first confirmation of his death. Earlier this month, Israel said he had probably been eliminated.
There was no immediate response from Hezbollah to Israel’s claim that it had killed Safiyedin.
Israel is waging an escalating offensive after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah, which is reeling from a spate of killings of its top commanders in Israeli airstrikes. The group is the most heavily armed of Iran’s proxy forces in the Middle East and operates in support of Palestinian fighters fighting Israel in Gaza.
A relative of Nasrallah, Saffieddin was appointed to its Jihad Council – the body responsible for its military operations – and to its executive council, which oversaw Hezbollah’s financial and administrative affairs.
Safiyedin took on a prominent role speaking on behalf of Hezbollah during the last year of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.
Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut – all Hezbollah strongholds. The group’s fighters are trying to repel Israeli ground incursions.
So far, Israel has shown no sign of backing down in its campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon even after this the assassination of several Hamas and Hezbollah leaders who lost Nasrallahits powerful secretary-general, in an airstrike on 27 September.
Diplomats say Israel aims to take a strong position before a new US administration takes over after the Nov. 5 election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
BLINKEN ON THE MIDDLE EAST TOUR
Israel’s confirmation of Saffieddin’s death came as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to capitalize on the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by securing the release of hostages from the October 7 attack and an end to the war in Gaza.
After repeated failed attempts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Blinken was making his 11th trip to the Middle East since the outbreak of the Gaza war – and his last before a presidential election that could upend US policy.
Blinken was also looking for ways to defuse the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, where at least 18 people, including four children, were killed and 60 injured by an Israeli airstrike near Beirut’s main state hospital overnight.
Blinken faced an uphill battle on both fronts.
He expressed the hopes of the US that the death of Hamas leader Sinwar – blamed for triggering a year of devastating war by planning the deadly attack by Gaza militants on Israeli territory on October 7 last year – will provide a new opportunity for peace.
“The minister stressed the need to build on Israel’s successful actions to bring Yahya Sinwar to justice by securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza in a way that provides lasting security for both Israelis and Palestinians,” said The US State Department in a statement on the meetings in Jerusalem.
In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu said that eliminating Sinwar “could have a positive effect on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all the goals of the war and the day after the war.”
But there was no mention of a possible ceasefire after a year of war in which Hamas’s military capacity has been severely eroded and Gaza largely reduced to rubble, with most of its 2.3 million Palestinians displaced.
Israel’s Western allies see Sinwar’s killing last week as a potential breakthrough, providing political cover for Netanyahu’s far-right government to claim that its goals in Gaza have been achieved.
But Israel says it will not stop fighting until the Palestinian Islamist militant group is completely destroyed as a military force and ruling entity in Gaza.
For its part, Hamas has refused to release dozens of hostages in Gaza taken in an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, without an Israeli promise to end the war and withdraw from the territory.
