Hezbollah cleric Naim Kassem picked to lead the Lebanese militant group

Hezbollah announced Tuesday it has chosen cleric Naim Kassem to lead the Lebanese militant group after the killing of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb in late September The group said in a statement that Hezbollahs decisionmaking Shura Council elected Kassem 71 as its new secretarygeneral and vowed to continue Nasrallahs policies until victory is achievedSince Nasrallahs death as part of an Israeli offensive that took out many of Hezbollahs senior officials the whiteturbaned cleric with a gray beard has often been the public face of the Lebanese militant group He is one of its founding members but is widely seen by supporters as lacking his predecessors oratory skills Israels Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X after the announcement about Kassem Temporary appointment Not for long It was a clear threat that Israel will go after Kassem as it did earlier by assassinating top Hezbollah officialsIn a televised speech earlier this month Kassem who carries the clerical title of sheikh claimed Hezbollahs military capabilities were intact after Nasrallahs assassination and warned Israelis they will only suffer further as fighting continues Kassem has been sanctioned by the United States which considers Hezbollah a terrorist group His appointment came as no surprise since he had served as Nasrallahs deputy for 32 years and had also long been Hezbollahs public face giving interviews to local and foreign media outletsThis is a message to Lebanon and abroad that Hezbollah has reorganized itself said Qassim Qassir a Lebanese analyst close to Hezbollah Kassems appointment shows Hezbollah is running its own affairs and not as some have reported that advisers from Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard are now in charge of the group Qassir addedIn an interview with The Associated Press in July Kassem said he didnt believe that Israel had the capacity or had yet made the decision to launch a fullblown war with Hezbollah But he warned that even if Israel intended to undertake a limited operation in Lebanon that stopped short of a fullscale war it should not expect the fighting to remain limitedA day after Hamasled militants stormed into Israel on Oct 7 2023 killing some 1200 people mostly civilians and abducting around 250 as hostages Hezbollah began attacking Israeli military posts along the border with Lebanon saying it was opening a backup front for its Hamas allies The attack triggered the yearlong IsraelHamas war and Israels retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 43000 Palestinians according to local health authorities The count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but more than half of the dead are said to be women and childrenNo one knows the consequences of igniting the war in Lebanon regionally and even internationally Kassem said at the time speaking from the groups political headquarters in Beiruts southern suburbs He said he was proud of Hezbollahs achievements in its support front for Hamas saying it required sacrifices on our partLess than three months later Israel expanded the war in Lebanon leaving hundreds dead and more than 12 million people displaced The invasion has caused wide destruction in southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beiruts southern suburbs that are home to Hezbollahs headquarters Israeli troops engage in daily fierce clashes with Hezbollah in the border region as they try to push deeper into south LebanonHezbollah is still firing dozens of rockets and missiles into northern Israel and in recent days claimed an attack on an Israeli military base south of Tel Aviv It also claimed responsibility for a drone attack that hit the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month No one was hurt in that attackBorn in 1953 in the town of Kfar Fila in southern Lebanon Kassem studied chemistry at the Lebanese University before working for several years as a chemistry teacher He simultaneously pursued religious studies and participated in founding the Lebanese Union for Muslim Students an organization meant to promote religionIn the 1970s he joined the Movement of the Dispossessed a political organization that pushed for greater representation for Lebanons historically overlooked and impoverished Shiite community The group morphed into the Amal movement one of the main armed groups in Lebanons 19751990 civil war and now a powerful political party led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri Kassem then joined the nascent Hezbollah formed with support from Iran after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and occupied the countrys southern regionFrom 1991 Kassem served as the groups deputy initially under Nasrallahs predecessor Abbas Mousawi who was killed by an Israeli helicopter attack in 1992 The choice of Kassem to take the helm of Hezbollah came a week after it confirmed that Hashem Safieddine a top figure who had been widely expected to succeed Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Beirut earlier this monthSafieddine was Nasrallahs cousin and had close links to Iran where he spent years of his life Safieddines son Rida is married to Zeinab Soleimani the daughter of Gen Qassem Soleimani head of Irans elite Quds Force who was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq in 2020 We ask God to help him in the great mission in leading Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance Hezbollah said in its statement about KassemIn another blow to Hezbollah thousands of communication devices used by its members both fighters and workers with the groups civilian institutions exploded nearsimultaneously in midSeptember killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3000 Israel was blamed for the attack that left scores with permanent disabilities Choosing Kassem is proof that Hezbollah is not scared regarding the developments Qassir also saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness 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