Lebanese Security Source to Asharq Al-Awsat: Safieddine Likely Killed in Israeli Strike

Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine (C) attends the funeral ceremony of slain top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut's southern suburbs on August 1, 2024. (AFP)
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine (C) attends the funeral ceremony of slain top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut's southern suburbs on August 1, 2024. (AFP)
TT

Lebanese Security Source to Asharq Al-Awsat: Safieddine Likely Killed in Israeli Strike

Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine (C) attends the funeral ceremony of slain top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut's southern suburbs on August 1, 2024. (AFP)
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine (C) attends the funeral ceremony of slain top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut's southern suburbs on August 1, 2024. (AFP)

A Lebanese security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hashem Safieddine, the potential successor to Hassan Nasrallah as secretary general of Hezbollah in Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut last week.

It added that the Iran-backed party has so far refrained from announcing his death until it can retrieve his corpse.

Israeli drones have been flying around the clock for the fifth consecutive day over the targeted area that its jets bombed with around 73 tons of explosives.

The Israeli army said it had struck a Hezbollah intelligence headquarters.

An Israeli a government spokesperson said on Monday that Tel Aviv could not confirm Safieddine was killed in the attack.

Asked if Israel could confirm the death, spokesperson David Mencer told an online briefing: "We don't have that confirmation yet. When it is confirmed, as and when, it will be on the IDF (Israeli military) website."

A Hezbollah official told Reuters on Sunday that Israel was obstructing search and rescue efforts in an area where Safieddine is thought to have been when Israel bombed the area on Thursday.

Israel has killed much of Hezbollah's military command and senior leadership in nearly a year of fighting that began when Hezbollah opened a front in solidarity with Palestinians the day after Hamas' deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.



Israeli Military Says It Intercepts Missile Fired from Yemen

 People run for cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Yemen, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)
People run for cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Yemen, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)
TT

Israeli Military Says It Intercepts Missile Fired from Yemen

 People run for cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Yemen, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)
People run for cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Yemen, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)

A surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen at central Israel on Monday was intercepted, the Israeli military said.

The missile set off air raid sirens across large swaths of central Israel, sending residents running for shelter.

"Following the sirens that sounded in a number of areas in central Israel, the surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen was successfully intercepted" by the Israeli Air Force, the military said in a statement.

The statement did not say who fired the missile. The Iran-backed Houthi militias, which control northern Yemen, have frequently attacked Israel over the past year in what it says is solidarity with the Palestinians.