Official expected to be Hezbollah’s next leader killed in Israeli strike

TYRE, Lebanon — Israeli jets struck multiple buildings in Lebanon’s southern coastal city of Tyre on Wednesday, sending up large clouds of black smoke, while Hezbollah confirmed that a top official widely expected to be the terrorist group’s next leader had been killed in an Israeli strike.

The state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli strike on the nearby town of Maarakeh killed three people. There were no reports of casualties in Tyre, where the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings prior to the strikes.

Hezbollah meanwhile fired another barrage of rockets into Israel, including two that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv before being intercepted. A cloud of smoke could be seen in the sky from the hotel where Secretary of State Antony Blinken was staying on his latest visit to the region to try to renew cease-fire talks.

On Wednesday night, the Israeli military said another four “projectiles” crossed from Lebanon into Israel, with two intercepted and one falling in open land. There were no immediate reports of any injuries, the military said.

Earlier Wednesday, Hezbollah confirmed that top official Hashem Safieddine had been killed in an announcement that came one day after Israel said it had killed him in a strike earlier this month in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Safieddine, a powerful cleric within the party ranks, had been expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month.

The terrorist group began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes, after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack from Gaza triggered the war there. All-out war erupted in Lebanon last month, and Israeli strikes killed Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.

Tyre, a provincial capital, had largely been spared in the Israel-Hezbollah war, but strikes in and around the city have intensified recently.

The 2,500-year-old city, about 50 miles south of Beirut, is known for its pristine beaches, ancient harbor and imposing Roman ruins and hippodrome, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The buildings struck Wednesday were between several heritage sites, including the hippodrome and a cluster of seaside sites associated with the ancient Phoenicians and the Crusaders.

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings a couple hours prior for dozens of buildings in the heart of the city. It told residents to move north of the Awali River, dozens of miles to the north.

Avichay Adraee, an Israeli military spokesman, said on the platform X that there were Hezbollah assets in the area of the evacuation warning.

The city is in southern Lebanon, where the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah has a strong presence, and its legislators are members of the group or its allies.

First responders from Lebanon’s Civil Defense warned residents through loudspeakers to evacuate and helped older adults and others who had difficulty leaving. Ali Safieddine, the head of the Civil Defense, told The Associated Press there were no casualties.

Dr. Wissam Ghazal, a health official in Tyre, said the strikes hit six buildings, flattening four of them, around 2 1/2 hours after the evacuation warnings.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 28 people were killed and 139 wounded over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll since the conflict began last year to 2,574, with 12,001 people wounded.

Monday’s strike killed at least 18 people and wounded over 60 others, the Health Ministry said. It also damaged the nearby Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Beirut’s primary public medical facility.

The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah site and stated the hospital itself was not the intended target.

On the Israeli side, Hezbollah attacks have killed around 60 people, half of them soldiers. Near-daily rocket barrages have emptied communities across northern Israel, displacing some 60,000 people. In recent weeks Hezbollah has extended its range, launching scores of rockets daily and regularly targeting the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Most of the projectiles are intercepted or fall in open areas.

In Gaza, the Israeli military has pressed ahead with a major operation in the northern part of the territory, where the United Nations’ humanitarian office has said Israel has severely restricted aid deliveries. During his visit to the region, Blinken reiterated a warning that hindering aid could force the U.S. to scale back crucial military support for Israel.

Israel’s army said it had arrested about 150 suspected Palestinian terrorists, some of whom it said had surrendered, while about 20,000 people left Jabaliya, a refugee camp that has turned into a densely built neighborhood over the decades.

The Israeli army says it is trying to uproot Hamas terrorists from Jabaliya, as well other parts of northern Gaza, issuing mass evacuation orders there earlier this month. Jabaliya has been the scene of on-and-off fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas terrorists for months.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.