Israel Targets Nasrallah's Likely Successor, Safieddine, As IDF Bombs Hezbollah’s Intel Headquarters

Israel’s military said Thursday it had hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the Lebanese capital Beirut, as reports emerged that Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor to slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was targeted during airstrikes in the Dahieh suburb.

This comes as Israeli troops had started “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, after days of bombing of areas across the country where the group holds sway. In Beirut, the Israeli strikes were aimed at an underground bunker meeting of senior Hezbollah leaders, including Safieddine, The New York Times reported.

Read More: Who Is Hashem Safieddine, Presumed Successor To Nasrallah Targeted In Israeli Airstrike In Beirut?

Nasrallah successor Targeted

Safieddine, who oversees military operations as head of the Iran-backed group’s executive council, is widely regarded as the heir to Nasrallah, who was killed in an earlier Israeli airstrike that also targeted dozens of leaders of the Iran-backed group. He was designated a terrorist by the US State Department in 2017 and is a cousin of Nasrallah.

Late Thursday, Israel had conducted 11 consecutive strikes on the group’s south Beirut stronghold, in one of the most violent raids since the country intensified its bombardment campaign last week. Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said “More than 10 consecutive strikes have been recorded so far, in one of the strongest raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israeli war on Lebanon”. The strikes echoed to mountain regions outside Beirut, the NNA said.

Hamas’s Zahi Yaser Oufi

Separately, in a joint counterterrorism operation, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency eliminated Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, the head of the Hamas terrorist network in Tulkarm on Thursday. The Israeli Air Force conducted an intelligence-based strike in the Tulkarm area, where Oufi was known for planning and leading an attempted car-bombing attack in Ateret on September 2.

He was responsible for supplying weapons to various terrorists in the region and orchestrating several other terror attacks aimed at communities in Judea and Samaria, as well as the Israeli home front. Oufi was reportedly in the process of planning a new attack in the immediate future. He was also involved in numerous significant attacks against Israeli civilians.

Hezbollah’s Mahmoud Yusef Anisi

The Israeli military has also announced the killing of Mahmoud Yusef Anisi, a senior member of Hezbollah involved in the group’s weapons manufacturing efforts. Anisi was killed earlier this week in an Israel Air Force precise strike in Beirut.

Anisi was a key leader in Hezbollah’s Precision Guided Missile (PGM) campaign in Lebanon and possessed extensive technological expertise in weapons manufacturing. He had been with Hezbollah for more than 15 years and held a degree in mechanical engineering, dedicating his skills to the development of advanced weaponry for the group.

‘Urgent warning’

These back-to-back strikes on Hamas and Hezbollah are part of the Israeli military campaign, which has now shifted its focus to Lebanon. Earlier Thursday, Israeli army Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee had issued an “urgent warning” for residents of the south Beirut area of Burj al-Barajneh to evacuate along with maps of the area. He later issued an evacuation order for the Hadath neighbourhood of Beirut’s south.

“You are located near facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, and the IDF (Israeli army) will work against them in the near future,” he had said in a statement on X. This week, Israel announced that its troops had started “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon, after days of heavy bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds around the country.

After nearly a year of low-intensity cross-border fighting, Israel has expanded its military campaign from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 1,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. Israel last week killed Hezbollah leader Nasrallah in south Beirut, a densely populated area before residents fled Israel’s intensifying bombardment.

(With agency inputs)