Safieddin, the head of Hezbollah‘s Executive Council, and Hussein Ali al-Seima, the head of Hezbollah’s intelligence service, were killed “about three weeks ago” along with other Hezbollah commanders, the Israeli army said Tuesday evening.
Safieddin had been seen as a possible successor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital at the end of September.
Israel has massively expanded its attacks on the Iran-backed pro-Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon in recent weeks and has so far primarily targeted targets in their strongholds in southern Lebanon and in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut. At the end of September, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and other high-ranking Shiite militia commanders were killed.
According to media reports, further Israeli air strikes a week after Nasrallah’s death targeted his expected successor Safieddin. However, the Israeli army did not confirm these reports. A senior Hezbollah official told AFP the day after the alleged attacks on Safieddin that contact with him had been “lost” since October 4.
In response, among other things, to the killing of Nasrallah, Iran attacked Israel with around 200 rockets on October 1st – it was the second direct Iranian attack on the country within six months. Israel, for its part, announced a response to the Iranian attack.
