BEIRUT: Lebanese armed group Hezbollah elected Naim Qassim as its new leader on Tuesday (October 29) but Israel said his term would be “temporary” in an apparent threat after he killed his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah He was in Beirut about a month ago.

“Temporary appointment. It won’t last very long,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on X, along with a photo of Kasim.

Earlier, Iran-backed Hezbollah made a written statement and announced that the Shura Council had elected 71-year-old Qasim in accordance with its established mechanism for the election of the general secretary.

Qasim was appointed deputy chairman of Hezbollah in 1991 by Abbas al-Musawi, the armed group’s then-secretary general who was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike the following year.

Qasim continued in his role when Nasrallah became leader and has long been a leading spokesman for Hezbollah, giving interviews to foreign media, including last year when cross-border clashes with Israel intensified.

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, on September 27, and Hashim Safieddin, a senior figure in Hezbollah who was considered his most likely successor, was killed in Israeli strikes a week later.