Hezbollah’s presumed new leader Hashem Safieddine said to be target of heavy Israeli strike in Beirut

The fate of a possible successor to late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is unclear following an Israeli airstrike on Beirut.

An Israeli official told CNN that Hashem Safieddine was the target of the strike, but it is unclear if he was killed.

Safieddine is a maternal cousin of Nasrallah – the two studied in Iran together in the early 1980s. Just like Nasrallah, Safieddine is a staunch critic of Israel and the West, with deep alliances within the Iranian leadership.

Safieddine served as head of Hezbollah’s executive council and, until his predecessor’s death, was seen as one of the most likely heirs to the organization’s highest-ranking seat. The group has yet to name a successor.

NYT reports that he was meeting other Hezbollah leaders in underground bunker.

IDF says strike targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence HQ; drone from east shot down over Beit She’an valley

Both the Axios news site and The New York Times identified Hashem Safieddine as the target of the strike, with the latter outlet citing three Israeli officials saying he was attending a meeting with other senior Hezbollah leaders in an underground bunker.

It was unclear if Safieddine was harmed in the strike

The IDF said Friday morning that the airstrike in Beirut targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters. The military did not disclose who was at the underground bunker.

There was no immediate reaction from Hezbollah.

As head of the executive council, Safieddine oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs. He also sits on the Jihad Council, which manages the group’s military operations.

Safieddine, whom the US State Department designated as a terrorist in 2017, is a cleric who wears the black turban denoting ostensible descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.

Safieddine’s family ties and physical resemblance to Nasrallah, as well as his religious status as a descendant of Mohammed, would all count in his favour to succeed the slain arch-terrorist.

AFP correspondents in the capital and beyond heard loud bangs that made car alarms go off and buildings shake. About an hour later, AFP journalists heard several explosions coming from the direction of the southern suburbs after the IDF ordered residents of the Hadath neighborhood to evacuate.

AFP footage showed giant balls of flame rising from the targeted site with thick smoke billowing and flares shooting out.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said “more than 10 consecutive strikes have been recorded so far, in one of the strongest raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israeli war on Lebanon.”

The strikes echoed to mountain regions outside Beirut, the NNA said.

Earlier Thursday, IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee had issued an “urgent warning” for residents of the south Beirut area of Burj al-Barajneh to evacuate along with maps of the area. He later issued the evacuation order for Hadath.

“You are located near facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, and the IDF will work against them in the near future,” he said in a statement on X.

However, Hezbollah confirmed that senior commander Ibrahim Aqil died in an Israeli airstrike that leveled a multi-storey building in a densely populated Beirut neighbourhood on Friday.