The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a strike on Tuesday in Lebanon that reportedly targeted a top Hezbollah commander in response to the terrorist group’s attack over the weekend that killed many children and injured dozens more inside Israel.
The New York Times and various Israeli news organizations reported that the strike in Beirut targeted Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah official who served on the Jihad Council and was a close adviser on military affairs to Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.
The strike came in response to a rocket attack Saturday from Hezbollah on Majdal Shams, a small village in the Golan Heights, that killed 12 children at a soccer field and wounded 40 more.
The Times said that the strike happened in the vicinity of Hezbollah’s Shura Council where the terrorist group’s top decision-making takes place.
Israeli media said that U.S. officials were given an advanced notice about the strike.
Shortly after the strike, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Hezbollah crossed the red line.”
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy senior fellow Hanin Ghaddar said that Shukr was “a very big target.”
It is unclear as of this writing if Shukr survived the attack.
The U.S. government had placed a $5 million bounty on Shukr for playing a “central role in the October 23, 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut which killed 241 U.S. military personnel and wounded 128 others,” according to the U.S. State Department.
Joe Truzman, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), noted that Israel would not have launched the strike unless it was sure that Shukr was there.
“Given the complexity of the current war, it’s highly unlikely Israel would have targeted senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr unless it had rock solid intelligence on his whereabouts,” Truzman said. “Nonetheless, Hezbollah is likely to respond strongly, even if Shukr survived the attempt.”
Truzman verified videos from the strike that showed a large building in the densely-packed area was completely destroyed with smoke filling the area and debris covering the streets.
The U.S. has tried hard to restrain Israel from taking the gloves off in response to the near daily attacks that Hezbollah has launched against Israel since Hamas’ October 7 attacks. In the nearly 10 months since October 7, Hezbollah has fired thousands of missiles, rockets, and drones into Israel, which have killed soldiers and civilians.
The attacks along Israel’s northern border have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who have not been able to return to their homes since last year.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a senior fellow at FDD, said that in Israel’s last official war with Hezbollah in 2006, the IDF “did not manage to kill any Hezbollah leader.”
“Since Hezbollah launched its war on Israel on October 8, the Jewish state has taken out over 300 Hezbollah commanders, including the top 4 or 5 of Hezbollah’s chain of command (those with personal pictures with Nasrallah, Mughniyah and Soleimani),” he said. “I’m starting to feel that Israel could take out Nasrallah himself if it wanted to, but saving him and enjoying his weekly rants and rambles on live TV.”
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