A yet unconfirmed report indicated that the Israeli military has killed Hashem Safieddine, the designated successor to Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, who was also killed by Israel airstrike on Lebanon last week.
News from Beirut and other parts of Lebanon speculated that Safieddine was killed in a much heavier and more intensive airstrike than the ones that took out Nasrallah last week.
Photo: Beirut after an airstrike by Israel
A StratNews report said, “Israel struck ten times on Thursday, targeting an underground bunker where Safieddine was attending a meeting.”
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah has, however, confirmed Safieddine’s death.
Israel, though, has confirmed its killing of the Hezbollah communications chief Mohammad Rashid Skaafi on Thursday. It was not clear if Skaafi was in the same bunker or attending the same meeting that Safieddine was.
Safieddine has been on the US State Department terrorist list since 2017. He is a member of the Jihad Council which directs Hezbollah’s military operations, and also heads the group’s executive council which oversees political affairs.
His links with Iran are close. His son is married to the daughter of the late Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, killed four years ago at Baghdad Airport in a strike authorised by former President Donald Trump.
The Israel Defence Force said it killed Skaafi, who had been leading the group’s communication since 2000, in the strikes, which various reports said also led to the death of at least 37 people.
A CNN report monitored in Lagos on Friday morning (local time) quoted the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee
“Hezbollah has not yet made any announcements about casualties following Thursday’s Israeli strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut,” the report added..
The Israeli military said Thursday airstrikes targeted the headquarter of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut.
The IDF has vowed to continue the strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, the Bekaa valley and southern Lebanon.
Early Friday, IDF released a statement saying it destroyed tunnels crossing on the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop weapons from being smuggled into Lebanese territories”.
It said “the 4400 Unit, the unit responsible for the transportation of weapons from Iran and its proxies to Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
“Infrastructure sites adjacent to the Masnaa border crossing between Syria and Lebanon were struck last night.”
An Israeli airstrike near the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing halted traffic in both directions, a Lebanese official said on Friday.
The strike, late on Thursday, destroyed the road leading to the Masnaa crossing with Syria, Public Works Minister Ali Hamie told CNN, adding the checkpoint “has been cut off.”
The Masnaa border crossing lies in the Beqaa valley on the Beirut-Damascus international highway, a major transport link for people and goods between the two countries.
The highway has been used by tens of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardment in recent days.
