It appears that the apparent replacement of slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hashem Safieddine, has been eliminated, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday. He did not give further details.
Safieddine, a top Hezbollah official, was widely expected to succeed Nasrallah.
"Hezbollah is an organization without a head. Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated," Gallant told officers at the military's northern command center in a brief video segment distributed by the military. "There's no one to make decisions, no one to act," he said.
Group to elect a new secretary general
Safieddine had been running Hezbollah alongside its deputy secretary-general, Naim Qassem, since Nasrallah's assassination and was expected to be formally elected as its next secretary-general, although no official announcement had yet been made.
Qassem said in a televised statement on Tuesday that the group will elect a new secretary general and will announce it once it has been done.