Israel confirmed on Tuesday that it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the inheritor obvious of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was beforehand killed in an Israeli strike final month in opposition to the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.
The army mentioned Safieddine was killed in an assault carried out three weeks in the past within the southern suburbs of Beirut, the primary affirmation of his demise. Earlier this month, Israel mentioned it had in all probability been eradicated.
There was no instant response from Hezbollah to Israel’s assertion that it had killed Safieddine.
Israel has been finishing up an escalating offensive after a 12 months of border clashes with Hezbollah, which is reeling from a collection of killings of its prime commanders in Israeli airstrikes. The group is essentially the most formidably armed of Iran’s proxy forces all through the Center East and has been appearing in assist of Palestinian militants combating Israel in Gaza.
Safieddine, a relative of Nasrallah, was appointed to its Jihad Council – the physique chargeable for its army operations – and its government council, overseeing Hezbollah’s monetary and administrative affairs.
Safieddine took a outstanding position talking on behalf of Hezbollah over the last 12 months of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and different occasions that Nasrallah had lengthy been unable to attend for safety causes.
Israeli strikes have been hitting southern Lebanon, the japanese Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut, all Hezbollah strongholds. The group’s fighters have been making an attempt to push again Israeli floor incursions.
Thus far, Israel has proven no indicators of letting up in its campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, even after killing a number of leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, which misplaced Nasrallah, its highly effective secretary common, in an airstrike on September 27.
Diplomats say Israel goals to consolidate a robust place earlier than a brand new U.S. administration takes energy following the Nov. 5 election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
BLINKEN ON THE MIDDLE EAST TOUR
Israel’s affirmation of Safieddine’s demise got here as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to capitalize on the assassination of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, claiming the discharge of the hostages from the October 7 assault and ending the warfare in Gaza.
After repeated failed makes an attempt to barter a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Blinken was making his eleventh journey to the Center East because the Gaza warfare broke out, and his final earlier than a presidential election that might change American politics.
Blinken was additionally searching for methods to defuse the battle between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the place no less than 18 folks, together with 4 kids, have been killed in a single day and 60 wounded by an Israeli airstrike close to Beirut’s primary state hospital.
Blinken confronted an uphill wrestle on each fronts.
He spelled out U.S. hopes that the demise of Hamas chief Sinwar, who’s blamed for triggering a 12 months of devastating warfare by masterminding the lethal militant assault from Gaza on Israeli territory on Oct. 7 final 12 months, will present a brand new alternative for peace.
“The Secretary underscored the necessity to capitalize on Israel’s profitable motion to deliver Yahya Sinwar to justice by securing the discharge of all hostages and ending the battle in Gaza in a method that gives lasting safety to each Israelis and Palestinians,” mentioned the US State Division. in an announcement on the Jerusalem conferences.
In an announcement issued by his workplace, Netanyahu mentioned the elimination of Sinwar “can have a constructive impact on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all of the targets of the warfare and the day after the warfare.”
However there was no point out of a potential ceasefire after a 12 months of warfare during which Hamas’s army capabilities have been drastically degraded and Gaza largely decreased to rubble, with most of its 2.3 million Palestinians displaced. .
Israel’s Western allies see Sinwar’s killing final week as a possible breakthrough in offering Netanyahu’s far-right authorities with political cowl to assert its objectives have been achieved in Gaza.
However Israel has maintained that it’ll not cease combating till the Palestinian Islamist militant group has been fully destroyed as a army power and ruling entity in Gaza.
For its half, Hamas has refused to launch dozens of Gaza hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, raid on Israel with out an Israeli promise to finish the warfare and withdraw from the territory.