A drone-launched Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday killed two and injured several others but missed its intended target, Hezbollah military command Fuad Shukr. Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE
July 30 (UPI) — At least two people died and others were injured when Israel launched a retaliatory airstrike into Lebanon targeting a Hezbollah commander who allegedly ordered a rocket attack that killed 12 Israeli children Saturday.
“The [Israel Defense Forces] targeted in Beirut the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams,” the IDF said Tuesday in a statement.
The targeted Hezbollah commander is Fuad Shukr, a senior Lebanese official told CNN. Shukr survived the airstrike.
The drone-launched airstrike hit a building housing the Hezbollah command center in Beirut and caused it to collapse, local officials said.
An alleged Hezbollah rocket attack Saturday landed in a soccer field near a playground and killed 12 children and injured many more.
Hezbollah leaders denied they launched the rocket attack, but the IDF said it tracked the deadly rocket from a within Lebanon near the southern border with Israel.
Saturday’s rocket attack was the deadliest Hezbollah has launched against Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 civilians and kidnapped 250 more.
Hezbollah on July 3 launched an estimated 200 rockets into Israel in retaliation for Israel killing a Hezbollah leader.
Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have increased since the Oct. 7, raising concerns that the Israel-Hamas war might escalate into Lebanon, where Hezbollah is located.
The U.S. State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information on Shukr, who also is known as al-Hajj Mohsin, and is a senior adviser to Hezbollah leaders.
He also serves on the Jihad Council, which is Hezbollah’s highest military body, and “played a central role” in planning the deadly Oct. 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. military members and wounded 128 more.
The Department of State has designated Hezbollah and Hamas as foreign terrorist organizations.