A portrait of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah sits amid destruction in an area targeted overnight by Israeli airstrikes in Saksakiyeh on September 26, 2024.
Mahmoud Zayyat Afp | Getty Images
The potential successor to assassinated Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been out of touch since Friday, a Lebanese security source said on Saturday, after an Israeli airstrike reportedly targeted him.
In its campaign against Iranian-backed Lebanese groups, Israel carried out a major attack on the southern outskirts of Beirut on Thursday that Axios cited three Israeli officials as saying targeted Hashem Safieddine in an underground bunker.
A Lebanese security source and two other Lebanese security sources said continuous Israeli attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs – known as Dahiyeh – since Friday have prevented rescue workers from searching the site of the attack.
Hezbollah has so far not commented on Safieddine since the attack.
Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Friday that the military was still evaluating Thursday night’s airstrike, which targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.
The rumored defeat of Nasrallah’s successor would be another blow to Hezbollah and its protectorate Iran. Israel’s offensive in the region over the past year, which has intensified in recent weeks, has undermined Hezbollah’s leadership.
Israel escalated the conflict in Lebanon on Friday with its first attack on the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanese security officials said, after another bomb hit the suburbs of Beirut and Israeli forces launched an offensive in the south.
Israel has begun an intense bombing campaign in Lebanon and has sent troops across the border in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanging fire with Hezbollah. Previous fighting has mostly been limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, which has been fought in parallel with Israel’s year-long war in Gaza against the Palestinian group Hamas.
Israel said it aims to allow the safe return of tens of thousands of citizens to their homes in northern Israel, bombarded by Hezbollah since Oct.8 last year.
Israeli strikes have killed many of Hezbollah’s senior military leaders, including Secretary General Nasrallah in an airstrike on September 27.
The Israeli offensive has also killed hundreds of ordinary Lebanese, including rescue workers, Lebanese officials said, and forced 1.2 million people – nearly a quarter of the population – to flee their homes.
Lebanese security officials told Reuters that Saturday’s attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli killed a Hamas member, his wife and two children. Media linked to the Palestinian group also said the attack killed the leader of the armed wing.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack on Tripoli, a Sunni Muslim-majority port city that was also targeted by warplanes during the 2006 war with Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, Israel has been bombing Dahiyeh every night, which used to be a bustling and densely populated area of ​​Beirut and a stronghold for Hezbollah.
On Saturday, smoke gathered in Dahiyeh, which was largely reduced to rubble sending residents fleeing to other parts of Beirut or Lebanon.
In northern Israel, air raid sirens sent people running for shelter amid rocket fire from Lebanon.
Israel is considering options for Iran
The violence comes as it approaches the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage, according to Israeli counts.
Israel’s subsequent offensive on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displaced nearly the entire enclave’s population of 2.3 million.
Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas, and which has lost the top commander of its elite Revolutionary Guard Corps to Israeli airstrikes in Syria this year, launched a ballistic missile at Israel on Tuesday. The attack does very little damage.
Israel has been considering options in response to the Iranian attack.
Oil prices rose on the possibility of an attack on Iran’s oil facilities as Israel pursues its goal of ousting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and eliminating its ally Hamas in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden on Friday urged Israel to consider alternatives to attacking Iran’s oil fields, saying he thought Israel had not yet finalized how to respond to Iran.
Israeli news website Ynet reported that the top US general for the Middle East, Army General Michael Kurilla, is going to Israel in the coming days. Israeli and US officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
