The strike was a retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children during a soccer game in Majdal Shams.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Israel’s military launched a targeted strike in Beirut Tuesday night against Fuad Shukr, also known as Hajj Mohsin, a top-ranking Hezbollah commander, also wanted by the US.
MTV News Lebanon and the UAE-based Sky News Arabia cited a Lebanese security official who reported Shukr was killed in Israel’s strike.
The IDF has confirmed the killing of Shukr.
The strike was a retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children during a soccer game in Majdal Shams.
The attack occurred in the southern part of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, and its intended target was Fuad Shukr, also known as Hajj Mohsin, a senior adviser to the terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Shukr was responsible for the attack on Majdal Shams and is wanted by the US for the 1983 bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in an attack that killed 241 US Service personnel.
The US had put a $5 million bounty on the head of Fuad Shukr.
The strike in Beirut reportedly killed at least one person and injured several others.
Shortly after the strike, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tweeted, “Hezbollah crossed the red line.”
The strike was Israel’s first in Beirut since the targeted attack against Hamas’s deputy leader abroad, Saleh al-Arouri.
Following the deadly Hezbollah rocket attack on Saturday night, world leaders urged restraint and the avoidance of a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah.
US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said following the killing of 12 Druze children, “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.”
He also added that the US-Israel alliance remained “ironclad” that “Israel has every right to defend itself” and “certainly faces threats like no other country does in that region of the world.”
Hezbollah took responsibility for firing 10 rockets into the Upper Galilee on Tuesday, most of which Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepted.
However, a rocket killed a man identified as Nir Popko (28) in Kibbutz HaGoshrim.