Israel has carried out a strike on southern Beirut, targeting a senior Hezbollah commander they claimed was “responsible for the murder of children”.
Footage from the Lebanese capital shows the shells of several destroyed cars, as well as high-rise buildings gutted by the blast. In January Israel assassinated Saleh al-Arouri, a top Hamas official, with an airstrike on Beirut.
Since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,000 people and taking 251 hostages, Hezbollah has been firing into Israel continually, raising concerns that Israel could end up fighting a war on two fronts.
The Israeli military claimed the strike was their widely-anticipated reaction to a rocket attack on the occupied Golan Heights last Saturday that killed a dozen children and young people.
The alleged target of the strike was Fuad Shukr, also known as al-Hajj Mohsin, who is a senior advisor on military affairs to Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. There are conflicting reports regarding whether the strike was successful. The Israeli military claims that Mr Shukr was killed and described him as “the most senior military commander in Hezbollah” and the militia leader’s “right-hand man”. Hezbollah sources say that he survived the attack.
READ ALSO: Israel vows retaliation after Golan Heights strike kills 12
The strike killed one woman and injured several other people, Lebanon’s public health ministry said. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said 17 wounded were taken to the private Bahman Hospital, while 14 were taken to Hezbollah’s Rasoul Aazam hospital.
The Iran-backed militia Hezbollah claimed they were not responsible for Saturday’s Golan Heights attack on the Druze community.
But Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they were under no illusion about Hezbollah’s role in the strike. During a visit to site of the attack in the remote town of Majdal Shams, a majority Druze village in a region annexed by Israel from Syria in 1981, he vowed to issue a “harsh” response.
US officials also said they believed Hezbollah was responsible, though the Joe Biden administration had urged Israel not to escalate tensions too drastically in their response to the strike.
Diplomats had called on Israel to avoid targeting the Lebanese capital Beirut, its southern suburbs that form Hezbollah’s heartland, or key infrastructure. They hoped that by keeping Israel’s response limited, forceful retaliation by Hezbollah could be avoided.
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