Israel says Hezbollah commander targeted in Beirut air strike

Jerusalem/Beirut — The Israeli military said it carried out a targeted strike in Beirut on Tuesday against the Hezbollah commander it said was responsible for a strike in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teenagers at the weekend.

A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs — a stronghold of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah — at about 4.40pm GMT, a witness said. No injuries were reported.

“The IDF carried out 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,” the Israeli Defence Forces said in a statement.

It said it had issued no new instructions for civil defence in Israel following the strike.

A senior Lebanese security source said the commander’s fate remained unclear, while two senior security sources told Reuters the head of Hezbollah’s operations centre Muhsin Shukr had survived the attack.

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

Lebanon’s foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib said that his government condemned the Israeli strike.

Beirut has been on edge for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli attack in retaliation for a strike on the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights that killed a dozen youngsters.

Israel and the US have blamed Hezbollah for the attack. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.

Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday that it strongly condemned the attack, saying it considers it a “dangerous escalation”.

The Israeli strike was "a flagrant violation of international law", Russian state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the Kremlin. 

Update: July 30 2024
This story has been updated with new information.

Reuters