Medical and security officials who pulled Nasrallah’s body out of the hole in southern Beirut, however, told Reuters that he was most likely killed by blunt trauma due to the explosions.

Hassan ­Nasrallah shook hands with an Israeli agent who passed on the unknown substance, according to a Saudi Arabian news channel.

The man widely regarded as his heir is Hashem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah who oversees the group’s political affairs. It is not known if he survived Friday’s attack, and the Hezbollah statement announcing Nasrallah’s death Friday made no mention of a successor.