Hezbollah Confirms that Top Official Hashem Safieddine was Killed in an Israeli Strike

Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah - File/Reuters
Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah - File/Reuters
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Hezbollah Confirms that Top Official Hashem Safieddine was Killed in an Israeli Strike

Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah - File/Reuters
Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah - File/Reuters

Hezbollah announced Wednesday that Hashem Safieddine, one of its top officials who had been widely expected to be the group’s next leader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The announcement came a day after Israel said it had killed Safieddine in a strike earlier this month in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Safieddine, a powerful cleric within the party ranks, had been expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month, The AP reported.
Over the past several weeks, Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership.



UN Rights Office: At Least 12 Palestinians Killed in West Bank since Tuesday

An Israeli soldier keeps position during a large-scale Israeli army raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
An Israeli soldier keeps position during a large-scale Israeli army raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
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UN Rights Office: At Least 12 Palestinians Killed in West Bank since Tuesday

An Israeli soldier keeps position during a large-scale Israeli army raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
An Israeli soldier keeps position during a large-scale Israeli army raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)

Israeli operations in the West Bank have killed at least 12 Palestinians since Tuesday, the United Nations Human Rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said on Friday.

"Our office has verified that at least 12 Palestinians have been killed and 40 injured by Israeli security forces since Tuesday, most of them reportedly unarmed," he told a televised briefing.

"We are also concerned by repeated comments from some Israeli officials about plans to expand settlements further still and a fresh breach of international law. We recall again that the transfer by Israel of its own civilian population into territories it occupies also amounts to a war crime."

Hundreds of Jenin residents left their homes on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones fitted with loudspeakers, witnesses said, as the military demolished a number of houses on the third day of a major operation in the West Bank city.
The operation, involving large columns of vehicles backed by helicopters and drones, was launched in the first week of a ceasefire in Gaza that saw the first exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails since a brief truce in November 2023.
Israeli officials said the Jenin operation was aimed at what the military said were Iranian-backed militant groups in the refugee camp adjacent to the city, a major hub for armed Palestinian groups for years.