Beirut: Lebanese group Hezbollah has confirmed that its senior commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli attack in southern Beirut.
The Israeli military said it carried out a “precision strike” in Beirut that killed Shukr, adding that he had been responsible for the missile strike that killed 12 children playing football in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights earlier.
Hezbollah, who previously said Shukr had survived the attack, said in a statement that “the great jihadist commander brother Fuad Shukr (Hajj Mohsen) was present” in the building targeted by “the Zionist enemy.”
Shukr, also known as al-Hajj Mohsen, was born in Nabatieh in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon. He was among Hezbollah’s founders after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. According to the Israeli military, Shukr oversaw numerous attacks against the Israeli military and its former ally, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), in the following decade.
In addition to being sought by Israel, Shukr was also wanted by the US. A posting on the US government’s Rewards for Justice website offers payment of up to $5m for information on Shukr after naming him a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in 2019.
The Israeli attack on a densely populated area in Beirut’s suburbs hit the Haret Hreik neighbourhood near Hezbollah’s Shura Council, its central decision-making authority.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said three people, including two children, were killed and 74 wounded in the attack that the Israeli military described as a “targeted assassination operation” against Shukr.
In a televised statement, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel faces “challenging times ahead” but that it is “prepared for all scenarios”.
