Hezbollah confirms killing of senior member Hashem Safieddine in Israeli strike
Hezbollah has confirmed the death of Hashem Safieddine, a top leader who was believed to be its first choice to take over as its commander after the killing of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah last month.
The announcement ends weeks of speculation over Safieddine's death after an Israeli air strike in Beirut on 3 October.
“We mourn to the nation of martyrs and mujahideen, the nation of resistance and victory, a great leader and a great martyr on the road to Jerusalem, the head of the Executive Council of Hezbollah, His Eminence the scholar Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, may God Almighty be pleased with him,” the Lebanese group said in a statement.
Hezbollah added that Safieddine “departed to his Lord with the best of his mujahideen brothers, satisfied, content, patient and hopeful, in a criminal, aggressive Zionist raid”.
Safieddine is the latest top figure from the party confirmed to be killed by Israel, following a string of assassinations and bombings that have taken out most of the group’s senior leadership and killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians.
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Despite the killings, the group remains an effective fighting force, inflicting scores of casualties on Israeli forces trying to advance into southern Lebanon.
Israel targeted Safieddine on 3 October by reportedly dropping 73 tons of bombs on Beirut’s southern suburbs, commonly known as Dahiyeh.
The strikes were similar to the bunker-buster bombs that targeted Nasrallah a week earlier and were even felt in mountainous areas of Lebanon some distance away from the capital.
Despite the loss, Hezbollah says its members “pledge to our great martyr and his martyr brothers to continue the path of resistance and jihad until achieving its goals of freedom and victory”.
Hezbollah is currently engaging in battles with Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon as Israel attempts to invade the country.
The group had been clashing with Israel since 8 October 2023 in what it called a “solidarity front” with the Gaza Strip.
Israel severely escalated the conflict last month by exploding thousands of Lebanese pagers and walkie-talkies in a remote mass bombing attack, and then launching an intensive air campaign in Lebanon.
More than 2,500 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israel since October 2023, most of them since last month.
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