Naim Qassem: Hezbollah's new leader and the group's deputy secretary general

Qassem, man with beard, looks at the camera — We call this photo, File photo of Qassem before a memorial service for a senior Hezbollah commander in June

Author, Jacqueline Howard
Role, BBC news
Reporting from London
October 29, 2024, 1:50 PM WHAT

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Hezbollah does not announce that the group’s deputy secretary general will become a new head.

Naim Qassem will replace long-term leader Hassan Nasrallah and die before an Israeli airstrike on Beirut in September.

I am one of the few senior Hezbollah leaders still alive, after Israel killed most of the group’s leadership in one series of attacks.

This appointment comes as the conflict in Lebanon has increased in recent weeks.

Naim Qassem bin has been deputy secretary general of Hezbollah for more than thirty years and one of the group’s most well-known faces.

Hezbollah says the elected Shura council is in line with the group’s rules. It is not clear where I am, but some reports suggest that we should not flee to Iran, but that we will be Hezbollah’s main supporter.

Announcing the Qassem promotion, Hezbollah releases a statement that we describe as “carrying a blessed banner for this march.”

This statement also honors the late Nasrallah and we will die for the conflict.

They assume they will pass the new Hezbollah leadership to cleric Hashem Safieddine, but on October 22 they reveal that they died from an Israeli airstrike almost three weeks earlier.

Israel has been carrying out airstrikes across Lebanon in recent weeks, targeting Hezbollah operatives, infrastructure and weapons.

On Monday evening, the Israeli army carries out airstrikes on Lebanon, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, an area where Hezbollah is gaining a strong presence.

The Lebanese Health Ministry says at least 60 pipo don die and more than 50 are injured.

The Israeli military has never commented on the attack.

Israel begins an offensive against Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border hostilities, coincidentally over the war against Gaza.

Dem say they want to guarantee the safe return of residents of border areas driven out by Hezbollah missile, rocket and drone attacks.

According to the Ministry of Health, more than 2,700 people have been killed and nearly 12,500 injured in Lebanon in the past year.

Hezbollah attacks Israel with thousands of rockets and drones in the same period, and at least 59 people die in northern Israel plus the occupied Golan Heights.