An Israeli air strike targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Tuesday. The Israeli military described the strike as retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack three days prior, which killed 12 children and teenagers.
The attack specifically targeted a building near Hezbollah’s Shura Council in Dahye, south Beirut. The intended target, senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, responsible for Hezbollah’s precision missile project, reportedly survived but sustained serious injuries.
The strike resulted in the deaths of two individuals and targeted a Hezbollah-Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps coordination office.
Shukr, also known as Hajj Mohsen, is wanted by the FBI for his involvement in the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, which killed 307 people, including Lebanese civilians. The FBI had placed a $5 million bounty on Shukr, who has also been active in the Syrian civil war against the regime’s opposition.
A senior Lebanese security source confirmed that Shukr was the target. Dahye, a known Hezbollah stronghold, has been noticeably quiet as residents anticipated an Israeli retaliation.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the air strike targeted the area around Hezbollah’s Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut.
The city has been tense for days, anticipating an Israeli response to the rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, which killed the 12 children in a Druze village football field.
Hezbollah has denied involvement in that attack, despite confirming multiple attacks in the area.
In a statement, the Israeli military claimed responsibility for the strike, stating it was “a targeted strike in Beirut on the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians.”
Earlier on Tuesday, more rocket fire from southern Lebanon killed a civilian in a kibbutz in northern Israel. Shortly before the explosion in south Beirut, the Israeli military reported 15 projectiles fired across the Lebanese border, impacting parts of the Upper Galilee region, though no injuries were reported.
Update 11:15pm: Sources to 961News confirm the death of Fouad Shukr following hospitalization.
