Israeli warplanes launched an intense barrage of airstrikes overnight in an attempt to target Hashem Safieddine, a cousin and the presumed successor of the assassinated Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, according to three Israeli officials.

The bombardment was one of the heaviest in the area since Israel killed Nasrallah, but it was not clear if Safieddine, who was presumed to be at a meeting of senior Hezbollah officials, was killed in the airstrikes.

Here’s what we know about Safieddine.

Born in the early 1960s in southern Lebanon, Safieddine was one of Hezbollah’s earliest members. He joined after the Shiite Muslim group was formed in the 1980s, with Iranian guidance, during Lebanon’s long civil war.

He rose quickly up its ranks alongside Nasrallah, playing many roles and serving as a political, spiritual and cultural leader, as well as leading the group’s military activities at one point.

In 1995, he was promoted to Hezbollah’s highest council, its governing Consultative Assembly, and was soon after appointed as head of the group’s Jihadi Council, which controls Hezbollah’s military activities.

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Just three years later, in 1998, Safieddine was elected to lead the party’s Executive Council, a position that was also twice held by Nasrallah.

Like Nasrallah, he studied in Iran. Safieddine formed strong ties with Tehran, the Iranian capital, during his religious studies in the Iranian city of Qom before returning to Lebanon to work for Hezbollah.

Safieddine was designated a terrorist by the United States and Saudi Arabia in May 2017 for his leadership role in Hezbollah.

At the time, the State Department called him “a senior leader” in Hezbollah’s Executive Council, which oversees the group’s “political, organizational, social, and educational activities.” It said that Safieddine posed “a serious risk of committing acts of terrorism that threaten the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

The New York Times