Israel's military has confirmed the elimination of Hezbollah's Hashem Safieddine, who was considered the likely successor to the slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike in a southern Beirut suburb three weeks ago.

"It can now be confirmed that in an attack approximately three weeks ago, Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah's Executive Council, and Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of Hezbollah's Intelligence Directorate, were killed along with other Hezbollah commanders," the army stated in a recent release. Hezbollah has yet to comment on these claims.

On October 8, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the military had "taken out" Safieddine, though he did not explicitly name him. In a speech directed at the people of Lebanon, Netanyahu claimed that Israeli forces had "taken out thousands of terrorists, including (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's replacement and the replacement of his replacement."

Later on Tuesday, the army disclosed that Israel's air force had "conducted a precise, intelligence-based strike on Hezbollah's main intelligence headquarters" in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital, three weeks prior. The statement further noted that over 25 Hezbollah militants were present in the headquarters during the strike, "including Bilal Saib Aish, who was in charge of aerial intelligence gathering."

Safieddine, a member of Hezbollah's decision-making body and a distant relative of Nasrallah, had been out of contact since Israeli strikes on Beirut weeks earlier, according to a high-level Hezbollah source. A source close to Hezbollah informed AFP in early October that the deeply religious cleric Safieddine, who maintained good relations with Hezbollah's backer Iran, was the "most likely" candidate for the party's top position.

Described as grey-bearded and bespectacled, Safieddine bore a striking resemblance to his distant cousin Nasrallah but was several years younger, believed to be in his late 50s or early 60s. "We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah's senior leadership," the Israeli army's chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi declared in a statement following the confirmation of Safieddine's death.

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