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Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah group have both confirmed the death of Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah official and presumptive successor to Hassan Nasrallah as leader of the group, saying he was killed in an air strike. There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah.
Mr Safieddine, leader of Hezbollah's Executive Council, was reportedly killed alongside Ali Hussein Hazima, commander of the group's intelligence headquarters. The Israeli army said they were “eliminated” in an attack in early October on Beirut's southern suburb of Dahieh, with “a precise, intelligence-based strike on Hezbollah's main intelligence headquarters”.
Mr Safieddine was widely seen as the natural successor to Nasrallah for the role of the group's leader, but was assassinated before Hezbollah could elect the next seceratary-general. Nasrallah was Hezbollah’s leader for more 30 years before his assassination by Israel in September.
A cousin of Nasrallah, Mr Safieddine enjoyed good relations with Hezbollah's main backer, Iran, and was the “most likely candidate” to replace his cousin, a Hezbollah source told AFP this month.
Hezbollah officials reportedly lost contact with Mr Safieddine after an Israeli air strike on Dahieh on October 4.
On October 8, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the military had “taken out” Mr Safieddine, without naming him. Mr Netanyahu said Israeli troops “took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of his replacement”.
As a relative of the group's long-time chief, he “greatly influenced decision-making in the organisation on a variety of issues and at times when Nasrallah was absent from Lebanon, filled his place and served as Hezbollah's secretary general”, the army claimed.
More than 25 members of the group's intelligence division were present at the time of the strike, the army said, including the leader of aerial collection and the leader of the group's intelligence headquarters in Syria.
Much of Hezbollah's senior leadership has now been assassinated by Israel, including Ibrahim Aqil, said to be Nasrallah's second-in-command after the July killing of Fouad Shukr.
Israel launched an all-out war on Lebanon in late September, and a ground invasion on October 1, claiming to target the group in order to return displaced people from northern Israel to their homes. Entire families, paramedics, firefighters and other civil defence workers have all been killed in ensuing Israeli attacks, which have destroyed entire residential buildings in Beirut's suburbs and across Lebanon.
More than 2,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the country since cross-border fighting began last year, according to the health ministry.