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)
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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.



World Bank Looking to Free up Emergency Funds for Lebanon, Managing Director Says

 A plume of smoke billows following an Israeli air strike on the village of Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 7, 2024. (AFP)
A plume of smoke billows following an Israeli air strike on the village of Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 7, 2024. (AFP)
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World Bank Looking to Free up Emergency Funds for Lebanon, Managing Director Says

 A plume of smoke billows following an Israeli air strike on the village of Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 7, 2024. (AFP)
A plume of smoke billows following an Israeli air strike on the village of Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 7, 2024. (AFP)

The World Bank is looking to free up emergency funds for Lebanon, potentially including up to $100 million through the use of special clauses in existing loan deals, its managing director of operations told Reuters.

The Washington-based development lender currently has $1.65 billion in loans to the country including a $250 million loan approved this week to help connect dispersed renewable energy projects in the country.

Amid fighting across southern Lebanon, the bank was currently discussing ways in which it could help support the economy, including through the use of so-called Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERCs) clauses.

"We can use our existing portfolio and free up some money for really critical, short-term liquidity needs," Anna Bjerde said.

CERCs are present in around 600 of the bank's existing projects, globally, and allow it to redirect funds that have yet to be disbursed, if requested to by a government, for example after a health or natural disaster, or during conflict.

Lebanon has yet to make such a request, Bjerde said.

After a year of exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel mostly limited to the frontier region, the conflict has significantly escalated in Lebanon.

Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel's third largest city Haifa on Monday, while Israeli forces looked poised to expand ground raids into south Lebanon on the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread conflict across the Middle East.

Lebanon's government could choose to use an existing social protection program that was put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic that allows for financial support to be sent to individuals, Bjerde said.

"It has the benefit of being totally digital so you can reach people, plus it can be verified a bit... so we will also probably use that to top up the social safety net for those that are particularly affected."

Up to 1 million people have been internally displaced in the country, she added: "So it's important we focus on that".

Lebanon's finance ministry and economy ministry did not immediately respond when asked for comment.