Israel on Tuesday confirmed it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the heir apparent to late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed last month in an Israeli attack targeting the group in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The military said Safieddine was killed in a strike carried out three weeks ago, its first confirmation of his death. Earlier this month, Israel said he had probably been eliminated.
There was no immediate response from Hezbollah to Israel's statement that it had killed Safieddine.
"We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah's senior leadership. We will reach anyone who threatens the security of the civilians of the State of Israel," said Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi.
Israel has been carrying out an escalating offensive in Lebanon after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah.
A relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine was appointed to its Jihad Council - the body responsible for its military operations - and to its executive council, overseeing Hezbollah's financial and administrative affairs.
Safieddine assumed a prominent role speaking for Hezbollah during the last year of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.
Israel has so far shown no sign of relenting in its Gaza and Lebanon campaigns even after assassinating several leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, which lost Nasrallah, its powerful secretary-general, in a Sept. 27 airstrike.
The Beirut suburb where Safieddine was killed was pummeled by fresh airstrikes Tuesday, including one that leveled a building Israel said housed Hezbollah facilities. The collapse sent smoke and debris flying into the air a few hundred meters from where a spokesperson for Hezbollah had just briefed journalists about a weekend drone attack that damaged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house.
Tuesday's airstrikes came 40 minutes after Israel issued an evacuation warning for two buildings in the area that it said were used by Hezbollah.
