Israel assures that it has assassinated Hashem Safieddine, candidate to succeed Nasrallah at the head of Hezbollah

The Israeli Army claimed responsibility this Tuesday for the death of Hashem Safieddine, considered the main candidate to succeed the previous leader of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, who was also assassinated. Israel claims that Safieddine’s death took place earlier this month during bombings in the Lebanese neighborhood of Dahiyeh.

Israeli Defense Forces General Herzi Halevi has stated that Israel is capable of targeting anyone who threatens the country’s security. “We reached Nasrallah, his replacement and practically all the leaders of Hezbollah. We know how to reach any security of Israeli citizens,” Halevi said in a statement.

So far, Hezbollah has not commented on Safieddine’s death. The Israel Defense Forces have reported that in the same attack they also killed Hossein Ali Al-Zima, the head of the militia’s intelligence headquarters in Lebanon, as well as several of its leaders.

The Al Jazeera television network has reported that a Hezbollah source had already acknowledged that they lost contact with Safieddine at the beginning of the month, coinciding with the beginning of the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

The announcement of Safieddine’s death coincides with the visit of the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to Tel Aviv, which this Tuesday was the center of an attack with several missiles launched from Lebanon. Blinken is visiting Israel these days to try to once again boost negotiations between Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Hours before his arrival, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office had reported that he agrees with Blinken on the need to take advantage of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to reach an agreement that would allow the release of the Israeli hostages in the enclave. The spokesperson for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, explained for his part that Blinken stressed “the need to take advantage of the successful Israeli operation (…) by achieving the release of all the hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza.”