Israel says strike in Beirut is retaliation for Golan Heights attack that killed 12 children

An Israeli airstrike targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Tuesday, in what the Israeli military said was retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack three days before that killed 12 children.

A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital — a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah — at about 7:40 p.m. local time, a Reuters witness said.

The Israeli military said late on Tuesday that Israeli air force fighter jets have killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander and head of its strategic unit, Fuad Shukr, also known as “Sayyid Muhsan.” 

Shukr served as the right-hand man to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and was his adviser for wartime operations, the statement said.

“Fuad Shukr has directed Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel since Oct. 8,” the statement added, saying he was responsible for the deaths of 12 children in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights — a charge Hezbollah denies.

Two security sources had earlier told Reuters that the Israeli strike had targeted but failed to kill Hezbollah’s operations chief.

Lebanon’s state-run national news agency said an Israeli airstrike had targeted the area around Hezbollah’s Shura Council, in the capital’s Haret Hreik neighbourhood of the capital.

The strike hit an apartment building next to a hospital, collapsing half of the targeted building. The hospital sustained minor damage, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass. Paramedics could be seen carrying several injured people out of the damaged buildings.

A forklift was in the middle of the street, reaching to the top floors of the destroyed building, while utility crews removed fallen power lines. Crowds gathered to inspect the damage and check on their families. Some of them chanted in support of Hezbollah.

A resident of the suburb whose home is about 200 metres away said that dust from the explosion “covered everything” and that the glass in his son’s apartment was broken.

“Then people went down on the streets,” he said. “Everyone has family. They went to check on them. It was a lot of destruction.” He spoke on condition of anonymity out of concerns about his security.