Photo credit: Reuters
Image caption: The aftermath of a strike on a building in Beirut
July 30, 2024
The Israeli military said it carried out a strike in Beirut that targeted a Lebanese Hezbollah commander responsible for the deaths of children in a rocket attack on the Golan Heights last week.
“The IDF carried out a targeted strike in Beirut against the commander responsible for the murder of children in Majdal Shams and the killing of several other Israeli civilians,” the IDF said in a statement.
The strike targeted the group’s headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut. According to footage from the scene, the top floors of the eight-story building were damaged.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the strike targeted senior commander Fuad Shukr, who leads the group’s operations against Israel in southern Lebanon, and that he survived. Reuters sources also reported the same. Meanwhile, Sky News Arabia, citing a Lebanese security source, reported that the commander had died.
AFP recalls that in 2017, the US Treasury Department offered $5 million for information on Shukr, calling him a senior adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and claiming he played a central role in the deadly 1983 bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut.
Photo by Anadolu Agency
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News agency sources report that two people were killed in the strike, their identities are unknown.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said a woman was killed and 68 civilians were injured, five of them seriously.
Lebanese state media reported that the attack was carried out by a drone, which fired three missiles.
Minutes after the explosions in Beirut, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wrote on the social media site X that “Hezbollah has crossed a red line.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the strike, calling it “blatant Israeli aggression.”
Iran called Israel’s actions criminal, while Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the strike on Beirut “was a gross violation of international law.”
The attack on the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday evening killed 12 children and teenagers from the Druze community. Hezbollah denied involvement in the attack.
During a visit to Majdal Shams on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a “tough response” to the incident, further raising fears of a full-scale war.
