Israel was waiting for confirmation on Tuesday night of the fate of a senior Hizbullah commander who was targeted in two Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s Dahiya quarter, a stronghold of the Iranian-backed group.
A loud blast was heard in the Lebanese capital shortly before 8pm local time, and smoke rose from the area. At least one woman was reported to have been killed in the attack, and others injured.
The target of Israel’s strike was Fuad Shukr, also known as Hajj Muhassin, considered Hizbullah’s second in command, in charge of the group’s precision missile project. He has been a member of the militant group’s military wing since its founding and, according to Western sources, was part of the attack on US marines in Beirut in 1983, along with Imad Mughniyeh, the senior Hizbullah commander assassinated in Damascus in 2008 in a joint Mossad-CIA operation.
An Israeli source confirmed that the strike was Israel’s response to the killing of 12 Druze children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights at the weekend. “The Israel Defense Forces 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 military said.
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There was no confirmation that Mr Shukr was killed in the Israeli strike but the usually-reliable Al Arabiyeh network claimed that he was killed and his body was taken to a Beirut hospital. According to two Arab security sources he survived, after leaving the targeted four-storey building shortly before it was attacked.
It appeared that from Israel’s point of view, if Mr Shukr was killed, the attack marked the end of Israel’s retaliation for the Golan Heights strike. The Israeli military went on high alert and was bracing for Hizbullah retaliation after the group had earlier vowed to respond to any Israeli attack.
Minister for defence Yoav Gallant, posted on X: “Hizbullah has crossed a red line,” in reference to the Golan Heights attack, for which Hizbullah has denied responsibility.
CNN quoted a western source saying that Israel informed the US in advance of the attack.
Washington said it was working to prevent an escalation. “We’re continuing to work toward a diplomatic resolution that would allow Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes and live in peace and security. We certainly want to avoid any kind of escalation,” deputy state department spokesman Vedant Patel told a briefing.
Earlier, Washington had reportedly exerted pressure on Israel not to target Beirut or major infrastructure sites. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe that a clash between Israel and Hizbullah was inevitable, and said Washington would like to see things resolved diplomatically.
Lebanon’s minster for foreign affairs Abdallah Bou Habib said he hoped for a proportionate response by Hizbullah “so that this wave of killing will stop”. He condemned the Israeli strike and said Lebanon would file a complaint to the United Nations.
Russia described the Beirut strike as a “flagrant violation of international law”.
The heads of the Unifil United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon and UN special co-ordinator Jeanine Hannis-Plasschaert spoke to both Lebanon and Israel after the attack in an attempt to prevent an escalation.
Earlier on Tuesday an Israeli civilian was killed in a Hizbullah rocket strike on a kibbutz close to the northern border.
The Israeli military said 10 rockets were fired from Lebanon and that one of them hit kibbutz Hagoshrim, killing a 30-year-old civilian and causing large fires. Hizbullah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had launched dozens of rockets at a nearby military base.
