Israel carried out a large strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Thursday that Axios cited three Israeli officials as saying targeted Hashem Safieddine in an underground bunker.

Israel aimed at Hashim Safieddine, a cousin of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as the war in Lebanon expands.

The loss of Nasrallah’s rumoured successor would be yet another blow to Hezbollah and its patron Iran. Israeli strikes across the region in the past year, sharply accelerated in the past few weeks, have decimated Hezbollah’s leadership.