Netanyahu says Nasrallah's successor Hashem Safieddine, his ‘replacement’ also killed

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday (Oct 8) that the Israeli forces have taken out "Nasrallah's replacement" Hashem Safieddine, and the 'replacement of the replacement'.

Netanyahu said that Israel has taken out terrorists, including former Hezbollah chief Nasrallah and his successors.

"We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement," Netanyahu said.

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However, it was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the “replacement of the replacement”.

Earlier in the evening, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hezbollah's potential next leader, Hashem Safieddine, was likely killed in last week’s strike in Lebanon's capital, Beirut.

The statement camedays after the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group said that they had lost contact with Nasrallah's potential successor, Safieddine, from Friday.

"Hezbollah is an organization without a leader, Nasrallah was eliminated, and his replacement was probably also eliminated. This has a dramatic effect on everything that happens. There is no one to make decisions, no one to act," Gallant stressed during a visit to the IDF Northern Command.

He further said that Hezbollah’s firepower capabilities have also taken a heavy blow.

Gallant said, “The actions we are taking are being observed all over the Middle East. When the smoke in Lebanon clears, they will realize in Iran that they have lost their most valuable asset, which is Hezbollah."

"Contact with Sayyed Safieddine has been lost since the violent strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs" early Friday, a high-level source from the Lebanon-based group told AFP on Saturday, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

"We don't know if he was at the targeted site, or who may have been there with him," the source added.

Watch |Israel-Hezbollah Conflict: Nasrallah's Likely Successor Safieddine Still 'Unreachable'

According to one of the sources, Safieddine, who was reportedly supposed to take over the Lebanon-based militant group after the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, was "unreachable" since the Israeli strike on Friday (Oct 4), which targeted an underground bunker in Beirut.

On Friday morning, the Israeli military said that the airstrike in Beirut targeted Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters.

Moreover, Axios reporter Barak Ravid, citing an Israeli source, said in a post on social media platform X that Israel reportedly targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine.

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(With inputs from agencies)