(Oct. 29, 2024 / JNS) Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah on Tuesday elected its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem to replace secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Sept. 27.

Earlier in October, the Emirati website Aram News reported, citing an Iranian source, that Qassem had relocated from Lebanon to Iran out of fear that Israel may attempt to assassinate him.

In his third public address since Nasrallah’s death, Qassem on Oct. 15 reiterated the Iranian terror proxy’s unwavering support for Hamas, staunchly rejecting calls to separate a ceasefire in Lebanon from the situation in Gaza.

“We insisted on the demand for a ceasefire in Gaza—and we did not agree to their request to separate Lebanon from Gaza,” Qassem declared, dismissing international pressure to de-escalate the conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Hezbollah has been committing near-daily rocket, missile and drone attacks against Israel since Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas led a mass invasion of southern Israel, murdering some 1,200 people, kidnapping 251 others and committing widespread atrocities.

Sheikh Naim Qassem had served as deputy secretary general of the radical Shi’ite group since 1991.