Hezbollah appoints Naim Qassem as new leader, Israel says he won’t last long

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese armed group Hezbollah appointed Naim Qassem as its new leader on Tuesday, but Israel said his term would be “temporary”, a clear threat after it killed his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut more than a month ago .

“Temporary appointment. Not for long,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X with a photo of Qassem.

Earlier, Iran-backed Hezbollah said in a written statement that the Shura Council had chosen 71-year-old Qassem, in accordance with the established mechanism for electing a secretary general.

Qassem was appointed deputy head of Hezbollah in 1991 by the armed group’s then-secretary general Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter strike the following year.

Qassem remained in his role when Nasrallah became leader, and has long been one of Hezbollah’s main spokesmen. He conducted interviews with foreign media, including as cross-border hostilities with Israel raged over the past year.

Nasrallah was killed on September 27 in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh, and senior Hezbollah figure Hashem Safieddine – considered the most likely successor – was killed in Israeli strikes a week later.

Since Nasrallah’s killing, Qassem has made three televised speeches, including one on October 8, in which he said the armed group supported efforts to broker a ceasefire for Lebanon.

Many in Lebanon see him as lacking Nasrallah’s charisma and gravitas.

In its official Arab report on

“There is no solution in Lebanon other than dismantling this organization as a military force,” the report wrote.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Jana Choukeir and Clauda Tanios, Editing by William Maclean, Sharon Singleton and Gareth Jones)