Israel launched a targeted airstrike on Wednesday night in Beirut, striking a bunker believed to be housing senior Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine. According to three Israeli officials, Safieddine was inside a heavily fortified underground location in a southern suburb of Beirut during the attack. Safieddine is widely considered the likely successor to Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last week. However, it remains unclear whether Safieddine survived this most recent attack.
Israeli officials have not confirmed Safieddine's fate, stating that further assessment is required to determine the outcome. "Safieddine was in a bunker deep underground," one Israeli official said. "It isn't yet clear whether he was killed in the strike." The strike took place in a Hezbollah stronghold, an area that has long been a target for Israeli military operations. Lebanese media reports indicated that the scale of the attack was far larger than the one that killed Nasrallah.
The United States designated Safieddine as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2017, citing his involvement with Hezbollah's executive committee and his connections to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Safieddine's status as the potential successor to Nasrallah has made him a key figure in the leadership of Hezbollah, which has been a primary target for Israeli military action in recent weeks.
Safieddine's prominence comes at a critical time, as Israel seeks to dismantle Hezbollah's leadership structure. Just last week, Israeli forces killed Nasrallah, Hezbollah's most prominent and charismatic figure, in what was seen as a major blow to the Iran-backed group. "Israel has decimated the leadership of Hezbollah," said a senior Israeli official, adding that the group is now scrambling to maintain its influence in the region.
The airstrike on Safieddine's bunker follows a series of escalations between Israel and Iran-backed forces in Lebanon. Earlier this week, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a ground invasion of Lebanon, while Iran retaliated with a barrage of missiles targeting Israel. Both Hezbollah and Iran have promised further retaliation, raising concerns of an all-out regional conflict.
Reports from Axios and The New York Times, both citing unnamed Israeli officials, confirmed the targeting of Safieddine, though neither source could verify whether the Hezbollah leader had been killed. Lebanese officials, meanwhile, have yet to provide official statements regarding casualties from the strike.
The IDF has yet to issue an official statement on the airstrike, and efforts to contact Israeli military representatives have gone unanswered.
