Israel claims it killed Hezbollah commander in Beirut strike

Israel on Tuesday (July 30) carried out a rare strike on Beirut, which it said killed the Hezbollah commander who was allegedly behind a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. At least three other people were killed.

Hezbollah said civil defence workers were still searching for his body and others under the rubble of the building Israel struck. The Israeli strike killed a woman and two children and wounded dozens of other people in escalating hostilities with the Lebanese militant group.

The Iran-backed group's first comment after the strike targeting Fouad Shukur came hours after his death on Tuesday and followed an overnight strike in Tehran that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Hezbollah did not comment about the Hamas leader's death.

Target was Fouad Shukur

An Israeli official said the target was Shukur, a top Hezbollah military commander whom the US blames for planning and launching the deadly 1983 Marine bombing in the Lebanese capital that killed 241 American servicemen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the details of the strike with the media. Shukur is also suspected in other strikes that killed Israeli civilians.

If Israel’s claim proves true, Shukur would be the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed since 2016, when Mustafa Badreddine, the group's military commander in Syria, died in an explosion in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Israeli military’s claim

The Israeli military claimed Shukur had directed Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel since October 8, after the Israel-Hamas war erupted, and that he was also involved in “the killing of numerous Israelis and foreign nationals over the years.”

It said Shukur was responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets and UAVs.

Who was Fouad Shukur?

The 62-year-old, secretive Shukur was in charge of Hezbollah’s forces in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel as well as being a top official in the group’s missile programme.

He had been a close aide to Hezbollah’s top military chief, Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in 2008 by a car bomb in Damascus. Shukur had since been a close military adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Also known as Sayed Mohsen

Like most of Hezbollah’s military officials, little is known about Shukur, who was also known as Sayed Mohsen. The US Treasury Department had offered a $5 million reward for information about him.

He joined Hezbollah when the group was founded following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon that forced the Palestine Liberation Organization to leave Lebanon.

The US Treasury Department listed Shukur as a “specially designated national” on July 21, 2015, for acting for or on behalf of Hezbollah.

Role in Syria conflict

Like most Hezbollah military officials, Shukur played a role during Syria’s conflict that broke out in 2011 in which the Iran-backed Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters to join President Bashar Assad's Syrian forces, helping tip the balance in his favour.

After the Israel-Hamas war broke out October 7, Shukur was accused by Israel of being behind many of the drone and missile attacks that Hezbollah carried out against Israel.

In the thousands of rockets it has fired since October, Hezbollah has insisted it targets military and intelligence installations. Still, Hezbollah rockets have hit civilian areas. Before Saturday's bloodshed, its strikes had killed 13 civilians and 22 soldiers in Israel. In Lebanon. Israel's attacks have killed more than 500 people, including 90 civilians.

Hezbollah’s rare denial

Though Hezbollah issued a rare denial of involvement in the rocket attack on Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams, Israel is holding the militant group responsible. “Hezbollah crossed a red line,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant posted on the platform X shortly after Tuesday’s strike.

The two sides have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that was unlikely to escalate into full-on war.

74 wounded in Beirut

Lebanon’s public health ministry said Tuesday’s strike in a southern suburb of Beirut wounded 74 people, some of them seriously. The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals. Bahman Hospital near the site of the blast called for blood donations.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the strike was carried out with a drone that launched three rockets.

“The Israeli enemy has committed a great stupid act in size, timing and circumstances by targeting an entirely civilian area,” Hezbollah official Ali Ammar told Al-Manar TV. “The Israeli enemy will pay a price for this sooner or later.”

Strike near hospital

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli attack, saying it hit a few metres from one of the largest hospitals in the capital.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately release a statement.

The airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik — a crowded urban neighbourhood where Hezbollah has political and security operations but which is also full of small shops and apartment buildings — damaged several buildings.

Extent of damage

The strike hit an apartment building near to a hospital, collapsing half of the targeted building and severely damaging one next to it. The hospital sustained minor damages, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass.

A forklift was in the middle of the street, reaching to the top floors of the destroyed building, while utility crews removed fallen power lines. Crowds gathered to inspect the damage and check on their families. Some of them chanted in support of Hezbollah.

Paramedics could be seen carrying several wounded people out of the damaged buildings.

(With agency inputs)