Who is Wafiq Safa, targeted official in Beirut?

Published :

10-10-2024 20:49|

Last Updated :

10-10-2024 23:03|

Reports from Hebrew media indicate that Wafiq Safa, the coordination and liaison official for Hezbollah, was targeted in an airstrike on Thursday evening in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon.

According to the US Treasury website, Safa is a significant figure within the party, accused of using Lebanese ports and border crossings to facilitate the movement of Hezbollah personnel. Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Safa collaborated with leader Mohammad Raad to secure foreign citizenship for over 100 Hezbollah members, who were planned to be sent on "long missions" to Western or Arab countries.

Safa has participated in several negotiations over the years, most notably in 2000 as part of a committee negotiating the exchange of three Israeli Occupation soldiers who were kidnapped, with their bodies returned in 2004 as part of a deal. He also took part in negotiations to recover two Israeli Occupation soldiers abducted before the Second Lebanon War in July 2006, whose remains were returned in July 2008.

Media reports, including The Telegraph, suggest that Safa has close ties with customs officials at Beirut airport and continuously collaborates with Lebanese security forces due to his role at Hezbollah’s coordination unit.

Born in 1960 in the village of Zabdine near Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, Safa is noted as a prominent figure in regional dynamics, according to various Lebanese and international media sources.

Lebanon