The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it had killed Hashem Saffiedine, the presumptive successor to the recently assassinated Hezbollah leader, in an airstrike near Beirut, Lebanon, several weeks ago.
Speculation about Mr. Saffieddin’s possible death has swirled since Israeli warplanes targeted a meeting of Hezbollah leaders in early October. It was one of the heaviest shelling attacks on Hezbollah’s stronghold, known as Dahiya, since September 27, when an Israeli raid killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah. .
Mr. Saffieddin, Mr. Nasrallah’s cousin and a senior member of Hezbollah, is also presumed to have attended the meeting.
The Israeli military announced Tuesday that Saffieddin was killed in an airstrike about three weeks ago. An Israeli military statement said Mr. Saffieddin had great influence over Hezbollah and served as the group’s leader when his cousin, Mr. Nasrallah, was not in Lebanon.
“For many years, Mr. Saffieddin directed terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and participated in Hezbollah’s central decision-making processes,” the statement said, adding that more than 25 people were present at the meeting where the military attacked and killed Mr. Saffieddin. Hezbollah operatives were in attendance, it added. Saffiedin.
The Israeli military has provided no evidence of its claim that Mr. Saffieddin was killed.
Hezbollah has generally avoided commenting on his fate in the weeks since the attack. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
“We have been in contact with Nasrallah and his successor, as well as most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership,” Lieutenant General Helji Halevi, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, said in a statement. “We will reach out to those who threaten the safety of the Israeli people.”
Mr. Saffiedine’s death would be yet another devastating blow to Hezbollah, which many in Lebanon believe is now rudderless amid an Israeli campaign to assassinate its leader.
On October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted that Israel had killed Safedine, but stopped short of naming him.
Video Israeli officials said this month’s attack targeted a meeting in a bunker that included Hashem Saffieddin, the alleged successor to the recently assassinated Hezbollah leader. Credit Credit…Amr Abdallah Darsh/Reuters
“We have eliminated thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and his successor,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said, an apparent reference to Mr. Saffieddin.
The loss is a further blow to Hezbollah’s leadership, which has been decimated by Israel’s expanding campaign against the Iranian-backed group.
Saffieddine was born in southern Lebanon in the early 1960s and was one of Hezbollah’s earliest members. He joined the Shiite organization after it was formed under Iranian leadership in the 1980s during Lebanon’s civil war. He quickly rose to prominence within the group alongside Mr. Nasrallah, fulfilling many roles and serving as political, spiritual, and cultural leadership. He also led Hezbollah’s military operations for a time.
Like Mr. Nasrallah, Mr. Saffieddin usually appeared wearing a black turban, identifying himself as a respected Shiite cleric who can trace his ancestry to the Prophet Muhammad. And like his cousin, Saffieddin studied in Iran and studied religious studies in the city of Qom before returning to Lebanon to work for Hezbollah.
He was a close friend of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who commanded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force until the U.S. killed him in a Baghdad airstrike in 2020. Later that year, Mr. Saffieddin’s son married the son of an Iranian general. The daughter’s highly publicized wedding, which some analysts and critics say symbolizes Iran’s entrenchment in Hezbollah.
In May 2017, the United States and Saudi Arabia designated Saffieddin a terrorist because of his leadership role in Hezbollah. At the time, the State Department described him as a “senior leader” of Hezbollah’s executive council, which oversees “political, organizational, social, and educational activities.”
The United States designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization two decades ago, and it has killed hundreds of Americans, including the bombing of the U.S. embassy and U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in the early 1980s and the hijacking of a plane in 1985. The organization has been held responsible for several attacks. TWA flight 847.
Farnaz Fassihi, Euan Ward and Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.