ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Israeli military on Tuesday announced that Hashim Safieddine, the likely successor of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a strike on the group’s headquarters in Beirut around three weeks ago.

The Israeli military said in a statement that “it can now be confirmed” that Safieddine was killed alongside Ali Hussein Hazima, the commander of Hezbollah’s intelligence, and several other senior members of the group in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Hezbollah have yet to confirm Safieddine’s killing, but his death has been speculated for weeks.

He was purportedly set to replace his cousin as leader of Hezbollah following Nasrallah’s death in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs in late September, the but the Lebanese group never made a public announcement.

Born in 1964 in southern Lebanon’s Deir Qanoun En Nahr, Safieddine was Nasrallah’s maternal cousin and head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, which oversees the group's political, social, and educational activities. He was also in charge of the group’s daily affairs, managing its institutions and finances.

In 2008, Safieddine was elected Nasrallah’s successor as secretary-general of Hezbollah during the group’s general meeting, according to Iranian media, but he had reportedly been groomed for the position since 1994.

The US State Department designated Safieddine as a terrorist in 2017, saying he posed “a serious risk of committing acts of terrorism that threaten the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”