The Israeli army claimed responsibility for a rocket attack in Beirut on Tuesday against a Hezbollah commander it accuses of having killed 12 minors in a previous offensive in the Golan Heights.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) They claimed to have killed Fuad Shukrthe chief military adviser to the organization’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, in an “intelligence-based targeting” with fighter jets in the area of the Lebanese capital.
“The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a targeted attack in Beirut against the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the deaths of numerous Israeli civilians,” the army confirmed in a statement.
At least A woman died and several people have been injured by the impact.
The BBC has not yet been able to confirm whether Fuad Shukr is dead or injured.
Security sources at the scene told the BBC that Shukr was not in the building.
Minutes after the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office published a photograph of the president with his national security adviser and other officials.
Lebanon’s state news agency reported that the impact took place in the area where the Shura Council of the militant group Hezbollah is located, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood in southern Beirut.
He said that a drone launched three rockets to the building. It has not yet been confirmed whether any Hezbollah officials were hit or if there are any deaths.
According to the AP, the blast flattened half of an apartment building next to a hospital, causing minor damage, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass and injuries were seen.
Saturday’s attack
This action is, according to Israel, the response to the rocket attack that ended the life of 12 children and adolescents from the Druze minority community last Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, a territory controlled by Israel.
It was the deadliest incident on or around Israel’s border with Lebanon since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in October last year.
The weekend attack on the Golan Heights caused outrage in Israel and around the world.
The Netanyahu government blamed the attack on Hezbollahas the rockets came from an area controlled by this militant group.
He said the Lebanese Islamist group carried out the attack with an Iranian-made rocket fired from Lebanon at close range.
The United States also singled out Hezbollah, which denied his involvement.
Fuad Shukr in the spotlight
The Israeli army has not attacked Beirut since January, when it killed a senior Hamas official, Saleh Arouri, in an airstrike.
The alleged target of Tuesday’s attack, Fuad Shukrwas the chief military adviser to Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah – who sits on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s highest military body – and is considered by experts to be one of the leaders of the group’s precision missile project.
It has also been involved in Hezbollah’s campaigns in the Syrian civil war, where it has supported the government of Bashar al-Assad.
United States, which offers a $5 million dollar reward for information about Shukr, he also alleges that he played a “central role” in the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen.
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