Israel says it killed a Hezbollah official expected to be the group’s next leader
TEL AVIV — Israel said Tuesday that one of its airstrikes outside Beirut this month killed a Hezbollah official widely expected to replace the militant group’s longtime leader, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike last month.
There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah about the fate of Hashem Safieddine, a powerful cleric who was expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders.
Safieddine was killed in early October in a strike that also killed 25 other Hezbollah leaders, according to Israel, whose airstrikes in southern Lebanon in recent months have killed many of Hezbollah’s top leaders, leaving the group in disarray.
Last week, Israel killed the top leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, during a battle with the militant group in the Gaza Strip.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Tuesday during a trip to Israel that leaders there should “capitalize” on Sinwar’s death as an opportunity to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages taken as part of the deadly Hamas attack on Israel that started the war. Blinken also stressed the need for Israel to do more to help increase the flow of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called his meeting with Blinken, which lasted more than two hours, “friendly and productive.”
The Beirut suburb where Safieddine was killed was pummeled by a series of airstrikes Tuesday, including one that leveled a building Israel said housed Hezbollah facilities. The collapse sent smoke and debris into the air a few hundred yards from where a spokesperson for the militant group had just briefed journalists about a weekend drone attack that damaged Netanyahu’s house.
Tuesday’s airstrike came 40 minutes after Israel issued an evacuation warning for two buildings in the area that it said were used by Hezbollah. The Hezbollah news conference nearby was cut short, and an Associated Press photographer captured an image of a missile heading toward the building. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Hezbollah’s chief spokesman, Mohammed Afif, said the group was behind the Saturday drone attack on Netanyahu’s home in the coastal town of Caesarea. He hinted that it might attempt future strikes on the home. Israel has said neither the prime minister nor his wife was home at the time of the attack.
Contrary to critics who say the administration could force Benjamin Netanyahu’s hand, the U.S. has limited power to stop the conflict that began Oct. 7.
Blinken‘s meetings Tuesday with Netanyahu and other officials were part of his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. He landed hours after Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in populated areas and at its international airport, but causing no apparent damage or injuries.
Hospitals in Lebanon fear being targeted by Israel
An Israeli airstrike late Monday night in Beirut destroyed several buildings across the street from the country’s largest public hospital, killing 18 people and wounding at least 60 others. The Israeli military said that it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating, and that it hadn’t targeted the hospital itself.
Associated Press reporters visited the Rafik Hariri University Hospital on Tuesday. They saw broken windows in the pharmacy and dialysis center, which was full of patients at the time.
Staff members at another Beirut hospital feared it would be targeted after Israel alleged that Hezbollah had stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in its basement, without providing evidence.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has delivered some of the Biden administration’s strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza
The director of the Sahel General Hospital denied the allegations and invited journalists to visit the hospital and its two underground floors Tuesday. AP reporters saw no sign of militants or anything out of the ordinary.
The few remaining patients had been evacuated after the Israeli military’s announcement the night before.
“We have been living in terror for the last 24 hours,” hospital director Mazen Alame said. “There is nothing under the hospital.”
Many in Lebanon fear Israel could target its hospitals in the same way it has raided medical facilities across Gaza. The Israeli military has accused Hamas and other militants of using hospitals for military purposes, allegations denied by medical staff.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that 63 people have been killed over the previous 24 hours, raising the death toll over the last year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,546. Three Israeli soldiers were killed on Tuesday, one in Gaza, one in Lebanon and one in a rocket attack in northern Israel, according to the military.
Blinken trying to restart efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza
During his meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken underscored the need for a dramatic increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, according to U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. The need for more aid in Gaza is something Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III made clear in a letter to Israeli officials last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel’s response would be ‘severe’ as he blamed Hezbollah for a deadly weekend rocket strike.
Miller said Blinken also stressed the importance of ending the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated this month when Israel launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have brokered months of talks between Israel and Hamas, trying to strike a deal in which the militants would release dozens of hostages in return for an end to the war, a lasting cease-fire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
But Israel and Hamas accused each other of making new and unacceptable demands over the summer, and the talks ground to a halt in August. Hamas says its demands haven’t changed after the killing of Sinwar.
Israel said it launched its ground invasion of Lebanon to try to stop near-daily rocket attacks from Hezbollah since the start of the war in Gaza. Israel has said it plans to strike Iran — which backs Hamas and Hezbollah — in response to its ballistic missile attack on Israel this month.
The Israeli military says it recovered the bodies of six hostages from Gaza. Israeli airstrike kills at least 12 people at a school-turned-shelter.
War rages in Lebanon and northern Gaza
Israeli strikes across Gaza have killed 29 people, including young quintuplets.
Israel is waging another major operation in the already devastated northern region of Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the last two weeks, according to local health authorities.
In Lebanon, Israel has carried out waves of heavy airstrikes across southern Beirut and the country’s south and east, areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.
Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, missiles and drones into Israel over the last year, including some that have reached the country’s populous center.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage. Around 100 of the captives are still held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded tens of thousands, according to local health authorities, who don’t say how many were combatants but say more than half were women and children. It has also caused major devastation across the territory and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million.
Amiri, Goldenberg and Deeb write for the Associated Press. Deeb reported from Beirut. Kareem Chehayeb, Sally Abou AlJoud and Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.
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