TEL AVIV: The Israeli military said that it carried out an attack in Beirut targeting the Hezbollah commander it claimed was responsible for the airstrike that killed 12 children and teenagers playing on a football field over the weekend in the Golan Heights.
A loud blast could be heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iranian-funded Hezbollah militants.
A Hezbollah official said several buildings were damaged and authorities said two people were killed.
Media reports in the Mideast identified the Hezbollah commander as Fuad Shukr, but his fate was not definitively known.
The Saudi news source Al-Hadath reported that Shukr survived. But the Israeli news site ynet quoted an Israeli security source as saying, “There is a very high probability that the Hezbollah official was eliminated. If he was in the building – he is no longer with us.”
Shukr was believed to be Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s military adviser and has long been active in the U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
He was the head of the militant group’s operations room.
The United States sanctioned him in 2015 and he was wanted by the U.S. for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut.
The Hezbollah official had a $5 million bounty “on his head,” according to the United States Rewards for Justice, a State Department group that seeks to find wanted terrorists.
The Lebanese state-run national news agency said the Israeli strike had targeted the area near Hezbollah’s Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of the capital.
Israel and the United States have blamed Hezbollah for the Saturday attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, although Hezbollah has denied responsibility.
Earlier, Israel’s military said it used airstrikes and artillery fire to attack Hezbollah targets in seven areas in southern Lebanon, even as U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed concern that clashes between Israel and Hezbollah could spiral into a wider regional conflict along with the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
“While we’ve seen a lot of activity on Israel’s northern border, we remain concerned about the potential of this escalating into a full-blown fight,” Austin told reporters Tuesday during a visit to the Philippines.
“We would like to see things resolved in a diplomatic fashion,” Austin said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to carry out a strong response to the deadly rocket attack on the Golan Heights and reiterated Israel’s accusation that Hezbollah was responsible.
“These children are our children, they are the children of all of us,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the attack site. “The state of Israel will not and cannot overlook this. Our response will come, and it will be severe.”
(VOA)
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