People gather near a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, July 30, 2024. Inset, Top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a US wanted poster.
The Israel Defense Forces struck a building in southern Beirut on Tuesday evening, killing the Hezbollah terror group’s most senior military commander, who Israel said was responsible for Saturday’s deadly rocket attack on Majdal Shams.
Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s most senior military commander and a right-hand man to terror leader Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in the strike, which blew a large hole into the side of an eight-story apartment building in southern Beirut, the IDF said late Tuesday.
The strike followed days of intensive diplomacy aimed at curbing Israel’s response to a rocket strike on a Golan Heights soccer field Saturday that killed 12 children, amid fears that Israel’s retaliation could lead to tensions snowballing into all-out war.
Hezbollah did not immediately confirm Shukr’s death and the Israeli military said it did not plan on issuing special instruction for civilians to take shelter, as is sometimes done when the country expects blowback from a regional neighbor, though it advised Israelis to remain alert.
The Israeli strike occurred in Dahieh, a suburb south of Beirut and a stronghold of the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group, at around 7:40 p.m. Residents reported hearing a loud blast followed by a plume of smoke seen rising over the neighborhood.
Lebanon’s health ministry said three people were killed, including two children, and 74 people were wounded in the strike.
The Israeli military took credit for the strike, saying Shukr had been killed in the attack.
In a statement, the IDF said that Shukr, also known as Hajj Mohsin, was responsible for the Saturday Majdal Shams strike, as well as other deadly attacks on Israel. Since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught in southern Israel, Shukr has been managing Hezbollah’s near-daily attacks against Israel, according to the military.
Shukr sat on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body, and was the head of its strategic division, the military said.
He was named by the IDF several years ago as a commander of Hezbollah’s precision missile project. He is also wanted by the United States for his role in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut, with a $5 million bounty placed on his head by Washington.
The IDF said he was also a senior military advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, serving as his “right-hand man.”
The IDF said he was “responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs” and for the terror group’s “force build-up, planning, and execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel.”
He joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and has held several senior positions. The IDF said that in the 1990s he advanced numerous attacks against the IDF and allied South Lebanon Army, and in 2000, was involved in the abduction of three Israeli soldiers in an attack in the Mount Dov area.
According to the US State Department’s Rewards for Justice program, in addition to advising Nasrallah, Shukr sits on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body.
Shukr played a “central role” in the 1983 bombing of US Marine Corps barracks that left 241 US Marines dead, according to the State Department. The State Department reported that during the Syrian civil war he “aided [Hezbollah] fighters and pro-Syrian regime troops” as they battled anti-Assad forces.
Hezbollah did not immediately confirm Shukr’s death, and some earlier media reports claimed that he had survived the attack.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agenc said the Israeli strike targeted the area around Hezbollah’s Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut’s Dahieh suburb.
It reported that the strike was carried out with a drone that launched three rockets.
Shortly after the strike, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tweeted in English: “Hezbollah crossed the red line.”
It was the first Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital since a January strike that killed Hamas’s deputy leader abroad Saleh al-Arouri.
The strike came after days of Israeli officials threatening a harsh response to the Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children playing on a soccer field and playground in Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the Golan Heights.
The IDF said shortly after midnight that there were no immediate changes to the Home Front Command guidelines for Israeli civilians, despite fears of a possible Hezbollah counterattack.
“We have very good air defense systems, but the defense is not hermetic,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference, adding that the public should be vigilant and follow the Home Front Command guidelines.
He said the IDF is holding assessments on the home front, and would update if there are any changes.
“We are not looking to go to war, but we are well prepared for it,” Hagari said. “Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon and the entire Middle East into an escalation.”
The Israeli airstrike was precipitated by a flurry of diplomatic activity with Western nations seeking to avoid a larger escalation and urging both Israeli and Lebanese officials to practice restraint. A number of airlines canceled flights to Beirut over the past few days, and Lufthansa canceled several flights to Tel Aviv.
Israel gave the US a heads-up before launching the strike, an Israeli and a US official told The Times of Israel.
Shortly after the strike, US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told a briefing that “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.”
Patel reiterated that US support for Israel remained “ironclad” and that “Israel has every right to defend itself” and “certainly faces threats like no other country does in that region of the world.”
The Russian foreign ministry called the Israeli strike on Beirut “a flagrant violation of international law,” according to the Russian state-run TASS news agency.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the security cabinet was not updated ahead of the strike in Beirut. The outlet also reported that the US is expected to approve of the strike, especially given the fact that Shukr was wanted for the killing of 241 US servicemen. Channel 12 news reported that ministers were ordered not to publicly comment on the strike.
The heads of UNIFIL — the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon — and UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hannis-Plasschaert were speaking to both Lebanon and Israel in an attempt to prevent the outbreak of war, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.
Earlier Tuesday, Hezbollah fired a volley of 10 rockets toward the Upper Galilee, killing an Israeli civilian in Kibbutz HaGoshrim. The victim was later named as Nir Popko, 28, from the kibbutz.
The IDF said that most of the rockets fired by Hezbollah were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had launched dozens of rockets at a nearby military base. The military said it was shelling the launch site with artillery.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 25 civilian deaths on the Israeli side — including in Tuesday’s attack — as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 384 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 68 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
Israeli rescue forces at the site of deadly a Hezbollah rocket attack on a soccer field in the northern Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams, July 27, 2024. (Michael Giladi / Flash90)
