Hezbollah left the door open to a negotiated ceasefire on Tuesday after Israeli forces made new incursions in Lebanon, and Israel’s defence minister said another senior official from the Iran-backed group appeared to have been killed.
In what could be the latest in a series of major blows to Hezbollah, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said it appeared the replacement for slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had been “eliminated”.
Hashem Safieddine, a top Hezbollah official, was widely expected to succeed Nasrallah. Safieddine has not been heard from publicly since an Israeli airstrike late last week.
“Hezbollah is an organization without a head. Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated,” Gallant told officers at the Israeli military’s northern command centre, in a brief video segment distributed by the military.
“There’s no one to make decisions, no one to act,” he said, without providing further details.