An airstrike by the Israel Defense Forces in Beirut on Tuesday night targeted the top Hezbollah commander responsible for the rocket attack that killed 12 children in Majdal Shams on Saturday, the military announced.
“The IDF carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, on the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians,” the army said.
A Lebanese security source told the Reuters wire agency that the terrorist’s fate remained unclear following the strike, which caused a large blast in Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli strike had hit the area around Hezbollah’s Shura Council, which determines the terrorist organization’s key policies and strategies.
The attack was said to have targeted a senior operative of the group’s Jihad Council, which is subordinate to the Shura Council and is under the direct control of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
Fu’ad Shukr—also known as al-Hajj Mohsin—served as a senior “military” adviser to Nasrallah and played a central role in the planning and execution of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks bombing on Oct. 23, 1983, in the Lebanese capital, which killed 241 U.S. service personnel.
Site of explosion in southern Beirut. pic.twitter.com/bjuNPe7SGh
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) July 30, 2024
“Hezbollah crossed a red line,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wrote in a post on X after the attack in Beirut.
The Prime Minister’s Office published a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi meeting with military officials in Jerusalem.
Twelve children were killed and more than 40 people were wounded in Saturday’s rocket strike on the Golan Heights Druze town of Majdal Shams, marking Hezbollah’s deadliest attack on Israel since Oct. 7.
In addition, one Israeli civilian was killed when a Hezbollah rocket hit a home in Kibbutz Hagoshrim in the Galilee panhandle on Tuesday. The victim was identified by Israeli media as local resident Nir Popko, 28.
During a visit to the site of the attack in Majdal Shams on Monday, Netanyahu vowed a tough response to Hezbollah’s deadly attacks.
“With Iranian backing, Hezbollah attacked here with an Iranian missile, taking the lives of 12 pure souls,” the premier said. “These children are our children; they are the children of all of us. The State of Israel will not and cannot let this pass. Our response will come, and it will be tough.”