Did Israel kill Hashem Safieddine? IDF unsure even as Netanyahu claims he was 'taken out'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (Oct 8) claimed that Israeli airstrikes had killed two successors of Hezbollah's slain leader Hassan Nasrallah. This is in contrast to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which said it cannot confirm if Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to succeed Nasrallah, was killed when Israel struck the intelligence compound in Beirut in al- Dahieh neighbourhood.

What did the IDF say?

The Israeli military's spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagariin a televised statement on Tuesday (Oct 8) confirmed the strikes but did not verify whether Safieddine was killed. Instead, the IDF spokesperson said that they "knew" that Nasrallah's expected successor was there.

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"The results of these strikes are being checked. Hezbollah is trying to conceal information. We will know and update the public," he explained.

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

"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.

Who isHashem Safieddine?

A relative of Nasrallah, Hashem Safieddine has been running the Iran-backed movement alongside its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem since Nasrallah's assassination by Israel on Sept. 27.

In 2017, the USState Department declared him a specially designated global terrorist.

During the past year, amid heightening hostilities with Israel,Safieddine had assumed a prominent role speaking for the militant group Hezbollah. In this time, he was seenaddressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long avoided for security reasons.

In the aftermath of the Gaza war, which was ignited by Hamas' attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and led to a parallel conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Hashem Safieddine was the first Hezbollah official to address the situation in a public statement.

Addressinga rally in Beirut's southern suburbs the day after the attack, he announced that Hezbollah's"guns and our rockets are with you (Hamas)… Everythingwe have is with you."

(With inputs from agencies)