Israel Believes Hezbollah Senior Commander Killed in Beirut Strike, Israeli Media Report Say

Israel believes its air strike on Beirut killed a senior commander of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Tuesday, according to reports from Israel’s public broadcaster. The strike is said to be in retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack three days ago that killed 12 youngsters.

A loud blast was heard, and a plume of smoke was seen rising above Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, around 7:40 p.m. (1640 GMT). Two unidentified sources informed Israeli public broadcaster Kan that Israel assessed that “the target of the strike” was killed.

The Israeli military stated that the target was the Hezbollah militant responsible for a rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, which killed 12 youth playing football in the Druze village of Majdal Shams. Two security sources in Lebanon identified the target as Muhsin Shukr, also known as Fuad Shukr, head of Hezbollah’s operations centre. They reported that he was critically injured in the attack near Hezbollah’s Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood.

Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad told Reuters that the strike also killed another person and injured 35, three of them critically.

Hezbollah has denied involvement in the Golan attack but confirmed that the group fired rockets at a military target in the Golan Heights. The killing of the youths has prompted high-level Western diplomatic efforts to avert a major escalation that could inflame the wider Middle East.

The Israeli military has issued no new civil defence instructions in Israel, possibly indicating that it does not plan further strikes immediately. Channel 12 TV quoted an unnamed official saying that Israel did not want an all-out war.

Israeli media reported that, depending on Hezbollah’s reaction, the military considered the Beirut strike as concluding its response to the Golan Heights attack. Analyst Mohanad Hage Ali from the Carnegie Middle East Center suggested that Hezbollah would have to respond, potentially by targeting a major city like Haifa on Israel’s northern coast.

Throughout the day, approximately 25 rockets were launched from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, according to the Israeli military. Medics reported that a 30-year-old man in the cooperative community of Kibbutz Hagoshrim was killed.