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Israel said Tuesday that one of its airstrikes outside Beirut earlier this month killed a Hezbollah official widely expected to replace the militant group’s longtime leader, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike last month.
There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah about the fate of Hashem Safieddine, a powerful cleric who was expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders.
Safieddine was killed in early October in a strike that also killed 25 other Hezbollah leaders, according to Israel, whose airstrikes in southern Lebanon in recent months have killed many of Hezbollah’s top leaders, leaving the group in disarray.
Last week, Israel killed the top leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, during a battle in Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday during a trip to Israel that leaders there should « capitalize » on Sinwar’s death as an opportunity to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages taken as part of the deadly Hamas attack that started the war. Blinken also stressed the need for Israel to do more to help increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called his meeting with Blinken, which lasted more than two hours, « friendly and productive. »
The Beirut suburb where Safieddine was killed was pummeled by a series of fresh airstrikes on Tuesday, including one that leveled a building Israel said housed Hezbollah facilities. The collapse sent smoke and debris flying into the air a few hundred meters (yards) from where a spokesperson for Hezbollah had just briefed journalists about a weekend drone attack that damaged Netanyahu’s house.
Tuesday’s airstrikes came 40 minutes after Israel issued an evacuation warning for two buildings in the area that it said were used by Hezbollah. The Hezbollah press conference nearby was cut short, and an Associated Press photographer captured an image of a missile heading towards the building moments before it was destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Hezbollah’s chief spokesman, Mohammed Afif, said the group was behind the Saturday drone attack on Netanyahu’s home in the coastal town of Caesarea. Israel has said neither the prime minister nor his wife were home at the time of the attack.
Blinken’s meetings with Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders was part of his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
