Israel’s military claimed it killed Hezbollah’s most senior commander in an airstrike on Beirut on Tuesday, in retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack that killed 12 youngsters three days ago which it blamed on the Lebanese armed group.
A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above Beirut’s southern suburbs – a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah – at around 7:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), a Reuters witness said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the strike killed Fuad Shukr, who “has the blood of many Israelis on his hands. Tonight, we have shown that the blood of our people has a price and that there is no place out of reach for our forces to this end.”
There was no immediate response from Hezbollah. The group has denied involvement in a rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday that killed 12 youths on a football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams.
A senior security source from another country in the region confirmed Shukr had died of wounds sustained in the strike.
Israel’s military said Shukr was the most important aide to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, his adviser for wartime operations and in charge of Saturday’s attack.
The Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut also killed three civilians including two children, medical and security sources told Reuters.
Lebanon’s Al Manar TV cited the Lebanese health ministry as reporting 74 people injured along with three killed in the attack around Hezbollah’s Shura Council, a decision-making body, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood.
