IDF carried out two airstrikes on central Beirut on Thursday, targeting areas outside Hezbollah's stronghold the Dahieh, for the third time in the war. According to some reports, the attacks were an attempt to assassinate Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit head Wafiq Safa, a close ally of slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in an Israeli attack last month.
Lebanese health officials said 18 people were killed and 92 injured in the strikes. Safa's fate was unknown, security sources told Sky News Arabic while other sources said he survived the attempt on his life.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department's website, Safa exploits Lebanese ports and border crossings to facilitate Hezbollah terrorists’ travel. The site adds that, together with senior Hezbollah member Mohammad Raad, Safa was involved in attempting to secure foreign citizenships for 100 Hezbollah operatives who were to be sent on "long missions" in Western or Arab countries.
IDF strikes Beirut on Thursday
Safa is a well-known figure in Beirut and his position in Hezbollah gave him incredible power. He was known as the man who was actually in charge of Beirut's Rafic Al Hariri International Airport, the main gateway into Lebanon.
An airport employee told the newspaper Safa maintained close ties with customs control. "Wafiq Safa is always showing up at customs,” one whistleblower claimed, citing close relationships with the customs managers. “I feel like if we don’t do what they say, our families will be in danger.”
According to an investigative report in the UK's Telegraph newspaper last June, Hezbollah was hiding a significant weapons stockpile at the airport. Officials there said the terror group receives weapons on flights from Iran that are then stored. According to the same sources, Hezbollah stores huge amounts of Iranian weapons, missiles and explosives inside the civilian airport.
“This is extremely serious, mysterious large boxes arriving on direct flights from Iran are a sign that things got worse. When they started to come through the airport, my friends and I were scared because we knew that there was something strange going on,” one source at the airport said.
The paper reported that a Lebanese official rejected the claims and Transport Minister Ali Hamie called the information incorrect. He has invited media and ambassadors to visit the airport to see for themselves. Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he would be suing the publication.
As a member of Nasrallah's close circle, Safa was part of the negotiation committee Hezbollah established in 2000 during the kidnapping of three IDF soldiers on Mount Dov – Benyamin Avraham, Adi Avitan, and Omar Sawaid. The three bodies were returned to Israel in 2004 in a prisoner exchange deal.
He also participated in negotiations for the return of soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were kidnapped by the terror group shortly before the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
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