Fate of assumed successor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah unclear after Israeli airstrikes rock Beirut

The assumed successor to assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of an Israeli airstrike that killed other terror leaders overnight — as Israel claimed Friday to have “eliminated 2,000+ military targets and 250 Hezbollah terrorists” in the last four days alone.

Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s apparent successor, was the target of a strike that rocked Beirut overnight, an Israeli official told CNN, which stressed it was unclear if he was killed.

However, Mohammad Rashid Sakafi, the head of communications for Hezbollah’s networks, was identified as one of those taken out in a “precise, intelligence-based” strike in Beirut, Israel said.

“Over the last 4 days, the IDF has eliminated 2,000+ military targets and 250 Hezbollah terrorists,” the Israel Defense Forces said Friday of its astonishing operation to cripple the group.

The tally included five battalion commanders, 10 company commanders and six platoon commanders, the IDF said.

Israel carried out a series of massive airstrikes overnight in the southern suburbs of Beirut and another one that cut off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.

The blasts overnight rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, sending huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shaking buildings miles away in the Lebanese capital.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area late Thursday.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on what the intended target was, and there was no information immediately available on casualties.

Safieddine is a maternal cousin of Nasrallah. The two staunch critics of Israel and the West studied together in Iran in the early 1980s.

Safieddine served as head of Hezbollah’s executive council and, until his predecessor’s death, was seen as the likely heir to the organization’s highest-ranking seat.

The group has yet to name an official successor to Nasrallah.

Saffiedine has long been a critic of US policy for providing aid to Israel despite its actions in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

In 2021, he accused Washington of “interfering” in Lebanese domestic politics, saying “American tyranny” is “sabotaging” the region’s nations, citing Iraq and Afghanistan as examples.

The United States designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, and in 2017 designated Safieddine a foreign terrorist.

With Post wires