An Israeli Air Force strike in Beirut targeted an underground bunker where Hashem Safieddine and other top Hezbollah terrorists were meeting, The New York Times reports, citing three Israeli officials.
The fate of Safieddine, a maternal cousin of slain terror master Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council and a leading candidate to replace Nasrallah, is not yet clear.
Around midnight on Thursday, a series of huge explosions rocked Beirut’s Dahiyeh district, a known Hezbollah stronghold, creating shockwaves that rattled buildings at least 15 miles away, according to the Times.
It was one of the heaviest Israeli bombardments in the Lebanese capital since Hezbollah opened fire on the Jewish state a day after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in the northwestern Negev.
Safieddine has been declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States.
On Sept. 27, the IAF dropped at least a dozen 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs in the strike that killed Nasrallah. Two unnamed Israeli defense officials told the Times that more than 80 bombs were dropped over the span of several minutes during the strike, but did not confirm the type of munitions used.
The IDF revealed on Sunday that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy commander Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan and Ali Karaki, Hezbollah’s highest-ranking military commander, were among at least 20 terrorists “of various ranks” slain in the strike.
“We have settled accounts with someone who was responsible for the murders of countless Israelis and many nationals of other countries, including hundreds of Americans and dozens of French,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Nasrallah’s targeted killing.
“Nasrallah was not just another terrorist, he was the terrorist,” said Netanyahu. “He was the axis of the axes, the main engine of Iran’s axis of evil. He and his people were the architects of the plan to destroy Israel.”
The Hezbollah leader’s elimination was “a necessary condition in achieving the objectives we have set: Returning the residents of the north safely to their homes and changing the balance of power in the region for years,” said Netanyahu. “As long as Nasrallah was alive, he would have quickly rebuilt the capabilities we took from Hezbollah. Therefore, I gave the directive—and Nasrallah is no longer with us.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stressed that while Nasrallah’s death was “a very important step, it is not the final one.
“We will employ all the capabilities at our disposal, and if someone on the other side did not understand what those capabilities entail, we mean all capabilities,” Gallant said.
