Israel: "Hezbollah Successor Presumed Dead in Airstrike"

Precision underground bombing with a super-large bomb 'Bunker Buster'
Israel says "The possibility that he survived is low"

Israeli media reported that Hashem Safieddine, who was considered a leading successor to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, is presumed to have died in an airstrike.

On the 4th (local time), Xinhua News Agency reported that Israeli public broadcaster Kan TV, citing senior officials, stated that Safieddine was present in an underground facility bombed by Israel on the 3rd. Officials said Israel targeted him by bombing the underground structure and that the likelihood of his survival from the attack is slim.

It is known that Israel used a massive bomb called a "bunker buster" for precise strikes during the bombing. The bunker buster equipped with a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kit is a bomb that penetrates 1.7 meters of reinforced concrete before detonating. Simply put, it is a bomb capable of penetrating underground bunkers and causing damage to people inside. The JDAM kit consists of a guidance section and tail fins, using GPS to accurately guide a conventional free-fall bomb to its target.

This bomb is also known to have been used by Israel previously to eliminate Nasrallah. At that time, Israel reportedly deployed eight fighter jets to consecutively drop bunker busters, destroying deep underground structures to eliminate Nasrallah.

Hasem Sapiedin Photo by Yonhap News

Xinhua News Agency reported that neither Israel nor Hezbollah has officially disclosed Safieddine's status. Foreign media reported, "Safieddine's fate is unclear," adding, "Both Israel and Hezbollah have not made official statements regarding his life or death."

Safieddine was born in 1964 into a Shia Muslim family in southern Lebanon and studied Islam while attending school in Iran. He is Nasrallah's cousin and is also known to be related by marriage to Qasem Soleimani, the elite commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, who was assassinated by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

After becoming Hezbollah's Secretary-General in 1992, Safieddine took charge of the executive committee, managing Hezbollah's training system, foreign investments, and financial sectors for over 30 years. In May 2017, the U.S. Department of State designated him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), imposing sanctions such as asset freezes, citing that Safieddine posed a serious threat by engaging in terrorism that threatens U.S. national security and foreign policy.

During the simultaneous explosions of thousands of pagers and radios, Hezbollah's communication devices, in Lebanon on the 17th-18th of last month, which resulted in the deaths of many Hezbollah officials, Safieddine attended the funeral in place of Nasrallah.