Israel has confirmed that it has eliminated Hashem Saffiedin - the likely successor of the leader of "Hezbollah" Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack on the Iranian-backed Lebanese military group last month, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The military said Safieddine was killed in a strike three weeks ago in Beirut's southern suburbs, the first confirmation of his death. Israel said earlier this month that he had probably been eliminated.
There is currently no response from "Hezbollah" of Israel's statement that it killed Saffiedin, Reuters notes.
Israel is waging an increasingly intense offensive amid year-long border clashes with the Hezbollah group, which is in crisis after a series of killings of its top commanders in Israeli airstrikes. The group is the most heavily armed of Iran's proxy forces in the Middle East and operates in support of Palestinian fighters fighting Israel in Gaza.
Safieddin is a relative of Nasrallah and a member of the Jihad Council of "Hezbollah" - the body responsible for the group's military operations, as well as its executive council, which oversees the financial and administrative affairs of Hezbollah.
During the last year of the military conflict with Israel, Safiyedin played an important role, speaking on behalf of "Hezbollah" and delivered speeches at funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.
The Israeli strikes mainly hit the southern part of Lebanon, the eastern part of the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the strongholds of "Hezbollah" are located. The group's fighters are trying to repel Israeli ground incursions.
So far, Israel has shown no signs of ending its campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, even after killing several leaders of "Hamas" and of "Hezbollah", notes Reuters.
Diplomats believe Israel is aiming to consolidate its strong position before the new US administration takes office after the Nov. 5 election pitting Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Donald Trump.
The Israeli army razed a building in a suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut that it said housed "facilities" of the Lebanese Shiite group "Hezbollah", reported the Associated Press, quoted by BTA, noting that smoke and debris were in the air a hundred meters from the place where a spokesman for the movement gave a press conference.
At the briefing, Mohammed Afifi announced that "Hezbollah" claims responsibility for the drone attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in the city of Caesarea.
AP specifies that the strike was carried out 40 minutes after Israeli forces called for the evacuation of people in two buildings in the area, and draws attention to the fact that today Netanyahu met with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. For the first US diplomat, this is the 11th visit to the Middle East since the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip, which broke out on October 7 last year after the surprise bloody attack by the radical Palestinian group "Hamas" against Israeli territory.
Blinken landed in Israel hours after "Hezbollah" fired a volley of rockets into central Israel almost at the same time as an Israeli strike caused extensive damage to Beirut's largest state hospital.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that 63 people were killed and 234 wounded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of victims of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to for the last year, there are 2,546, and 11,862 is the total number of injured.