The heir-apparent to Hezbollah‘s late Hassan Nasrallah has been out of contact since Friday following an Israeli airstrike targeting him.
Israel launched the strike on Friday local time against Hashem Safieddine, striking a suburb south of Beirut, Lebanon.
Safieddine was reportedly in a bunker during the blast, but Lebanese security forces have said that he has not made contact since the attacks.
Israel began an intense bombing campaign in Lebanon several weeks ago and commenced a ground invasion into its northern neighbor’s territory after exchanging fire with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah for nearly a year.
The attacks from Israel have eliminated multiple senior players in Hezbollah’s military leadership, including Nasrallah, in an air attack on September 27.
If Safieddine had been killed, it would mark another devastating blow to Hezbollah and Iran in the escalating conflict with Israel. Safieddine had served as head of Hezbollah’s executive council and was a cousin of Nasrallah.
President Joe Biden issued a statement after the death of Nasrallah, calling the killing “a measure of justice for his many victims” during his “four-decade reign of terror” in charge of Hezbollah.
Biden also directly blamed Nasrallah for opening the northern front in the war in Israel by making “the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas” following Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
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Hezbollah has not made any comment regarding the whereabouts of Safieddine since the attack.
On Saturday, Israel expanded its conflict with Lebanon by making the first strike on the second-largest city in the country, Tripoli.
