Since last Thursday, contact has been lost with the head of the executive council of Hezbollah, Hashem Safieddine, following violent Israeli airstrikes that targeted a location of the party in the southern suburb. 

Estimates indicate that Safieddine was present at the targeted site.

The Vice Chairman of Hezbollah's Political Council, Mahmoud Qamati, confirmed that Israel is obstructing the search operations for Safieddine, noting that his fate remains unknown, raising questions about the party's future, especially after the assassination of its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on September 27 in Israeli airstrikes on the party's headquarters in Haret Hreik in the southern suburb.

Analysts view the assassination of Nasrallah as a severe blow to the party that he has led for more than three decades.

 Some expected that his replacement at this time poses an unprecedented challenge, amid the escalation of Israeli attacks and assassinations that have targeted senior party leaders, raising questions about its internal security and its ability to maintain cohesion.

In this context, Mohannad al-Haj Ali, Vice Director of Research at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said that "the scene will change radically," pointing out that Nasrallah "was the element that maintained the cohesion of an expanding organization." 

On the other hand, a European diplomat considered that Hezbollah always finds a substitute upon the assassination of one of its leaders.

Nevertheless, the recent series of assassinations, the latest being the presumed assassination of Safieddine, has placed Hezbollah in a difficult position, severely impacting the morale of its fighters and confirming Israeli superiority from a security and military standpoint. 

Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, stated that “Israel seeks to crush Hezbollah’s power by destroying its fighting structure and undermining its credibility.”

For his part, Philip Smith, an expert on armed Shiite groups, noted that any new leader of Hezbollah must have internal acceptance in Lebanon and also support from Iran. 

He added that Nasrallah had already started allocating positions within a variety of councils within the party, some of which are obscure, making Safieddine a viable candidate for succession due to his familial relationship with Nasrallah and his religious stature.

However, if the assassination of Safieddine is confirmed, all calculations will turn upside down, with some sources mentioning the potential for Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyid to assume the leadership of the party. 

Al-Sayyid, hailing from the Beqaa area, currently holds the position of Chairman of Hezbollah's Political Council and was among the first to join the party since its establishment in the 1980s. 

On another note, Qamati revealed that the party is currently being managed through a "joint leadership," while some sources reported that the Deputy Secretary-General, Naeem Qasim, is temporarily participating in managing the affairs of the party alongside other leaders.