Beirut, October 23, 2024 – Hezbollah has confirmed that Israel has martyred Hashim Safi Al Din, the apparent successor to its slain leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike, although it did not specify when or where the incident occurred.
The announcement came a day after Israel claimed that Hashim was killed along with other Hezbollah leaders in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs three weeks ago.
“We mourn… the head of the Executive Council of Hezbollah, His Eminence the Scholar Hashim Safi Al Din,” the Iran-backed group stated, adding that he was martyred by “a criminal and aggressive Zionist raid” alongside other Hezbollah fighters.
The deeply religious Safi Al Din, a cleric with family ties to Nasrallah, had been widely regarded as the most likely candidate for the party’s top position following Nasrallah’s assassination on September 27 in a significant Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. Safi Al Din, a member of the group’s governing Shura Council, had strong ties to Iran after completing religious studies in the Islamic Republic’s holy city of Qom.
