Israel says Hezbollah leader's likely successor killed – DW – 10/23/2024

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, barely a week after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. 

Blinken called on Netanyahu to try to use the moment as a catalyst to halt the conflict in Gaza.

As Hamas’ Gaza leader, Sinwar is considered to have orchestrated the October 7 terror attacks on Israel. 

The top US diplomat “underscored the need to capitalize on Israel’s successful action to bring Yahya Sinwar to justice by securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza in a way that provides lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Blinken’s spokesperson said of the meeting.  

He also stressed the need to provide assistance to displaced Palestinians and the importance of “charting a new path forward in the post-conflict period,” the spokesperson said. 

Netanyahu’s office meanwhile called the meeting “friendly and productive.” It also referenced Sinwar’s death and the prospect of an end to the fighting, but made no explicit mention of seeking a cease-fire. 

“The prime minister emphasized that the elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is likely to have a positive influence on the return of the hostages, the achieving of all the objectives of the war and the day after the war,” it said. 

Blinken has been a key component of cease-fire negotiations for a year now that have yielded little fruit since a one-week cease-fire accompanied by hostage and prisoner exchanges in November 2023. He has visited the Middle East 11 times since October 7.

Israel’s military confirmed late on Tuesday that it had killed top Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, considered the heir apparent to late Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed last month in an Israeli attack targeting the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that Safieddine was killed in a strike approximately three weeks ago in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The confirmation of Safieddine’s death comes after weeks of reports that he was likely killed in a bomb strike in early October. 

Hezbollah had yet to comment on Israel’s claim.

“We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership,” Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Herz Halevi said. “We will reach anyone who threatens the security of the civilians of the State of Israel.”  

The IDF said that the head of the militant group’s intelligence branch was among several other commanders killed in the attack in the southern Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut. 

The FBI is investigating the public disclosure of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel’s possible preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran.

“The FBI is investigating the leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Earlier, on Monday, White House spokesperson John Kirby said US President Joe Biden was watching the results of the investigation closely, and that it was not clear whether it was a hack or a leak. 

“We’re not exactly sure how these documents found their way into the public domain,” Kirby said. “The president remains deeply concerned about any leakage of classified information into the public domain. That is not supposed to happen, and it is unacceptable when it does. 

The documents began circulating last week on the Telegram messaging app. They appear to be based on satellite imagery monitoring from mid-October. 

Iran fired a ballistic missile barrage at Israel on October 1, saying it was a response to the deaths of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh and an IRGC general. Israel had threatened to retaliate.

msh/zc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)