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Israel targets Hezbollah commander in Beirut
The Guardian
|July 31, 2024
Israel has carried out an airstrike on southern Beirut targeting a senior Hezbollah commander who a military spokesperson said was responsible for a rocket attack that killed 12 children at the weekend.
Fuad Shukur, the reported target, is the leader of the group's operations centre, with a $5m (£3.9m) bounty on his head in the United States over his role in the 1983 bombing of a US marine barracks 21 in the Lebanese capital. The attack, just after sunset on Tuesday, hit an apartment building in Haret Hreik, a suburb known as a Hezbollah stronghold, causing a blast heard across the city.
It killed one woman and injured several other people, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported. It was not immediately clear if Shukur was at the site or among the casualties.
Beirut had been bracing for Israel's response to a rocket strike on a children's football match in the occupied Golan Heights three days earlier.
Israel and the US have blamed Hezbollah for the attack. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.
The US had been leading a global diplomatic effort to deter Israel from hitting Beirut or Lebanese infrastructure, in an attempt to prevent escalation into full-blown regional conflict.
In a post on X after the strike, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said "Hezbollah crossed the red line".
This story is from the July 31, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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