4 dead, 74 hurt as Israel says killed top Hezbollah commander in Dahieh airstrike
Israel carried out a rare strike Tuesday on Beirut's southern suburbs that killed at least four civilians -- two children and two women -- and wounded around 74 others, raising the stakes in the escalating tensions with Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted and killed Hezbollah's "most senior" military commander, Fouad Shukur, accusing him of being behind the deaths of 12 children and teens in a weekend rocket strike on a Druze village in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, as well as the deaths of numerous Israeli civilians hit in other strikes.
A source close to Hezbollah meanwhile told AFP that Shukur survived the Israeli strike, as did a senior Lebanese government official who spoke to CNN. Al-Arabiya's Al-Hadath television however reported that Shukur was killed in the strike. Al-Hadath claimed that Shukur's body was taken to Hezbollah's Great Prophet Hospital. Other reports said Shukur was severely injured.
Shukr is "in charge of commanding the military operations in southern Lebanon," the source close to Hezbollah added, saying he had succeeded top Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh who was killed in a 2008 Damascus car bombing the group blamed on Israel.
Shukur has a $5 million prize on his head from the U.S. Treasury, which describes him as a "senior adviser" to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and says he played "a central role" in the deadly 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
Four people were killed in Tuesday's strike. Lebanon's health ministry said two women and two children were killed and 74 people were wounded, four of them critically.
Israel has blamed the rocket attack Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams on Hezbollah, which has denied any role. "Hezbollah crossed a red line," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on the platform X shortly after Tuesday's strike.
The two sides have been exchanging near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but had previously kept the conflict at a low level that would not escalate into full-on war.
The Israeli army said fighter jets carried out the attack, after initial reports said it was a drone strike.
The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals. Bahman Hospital near the site of the blast called on people to donate blood.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said 17 wounded were taken to the private Bahman Hospital, while 14 were taken to Hezbollah's Great Prophet Hospital.
"The Israeli enemy has committed a great stupid act in size, timing and circumstances by targeting an entirely civilian area," Hezbollah official Ali Ammar told Al-Manar TV. "The Israeli enemy will pay a price for this sooner or later."
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately release a statement, but minutes after the strike sent a photo of the prime minister with his national security advisor and other officials.
The airstrike on Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik -- a crowded urban neighborhood full of small shops and apartment buildings -- damaged several buildings but it was not immediately clear if any Hezbollah official was hit, a Hezbollah official said.
A Lebanese military intelligence official said they have no information when asked by The Associated Press whether a senior Hezbollah security official had escaped the airstrike.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.
The strike hit an apartment building near to a hospital, collapsing half of the targeted building and severely damaging one next to it. The hospital sustained minor damages, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass.
A forklift was in the middle of the street, reaching to the top floors of the destroyed building, while utility crews removed fallen power lines. Crowds gathered to inspect the damages and check on their families. Some of them chanted in support of Hezbollah.
Paramedics could be seen carrying several injured people out of the damaged buildings.
A resident of the suburb whose home is about 200 meters (yards) away said that dust from the explosion "covered everything," and that the glass in his son's apartment was broken.
"Then people went down on the streets," he said. "Everyone has family. They went to check on them. It was a lot of destruction." He spoke on condition of anonymity out of concerns about his security at a tense moment.
The last time Israel targeted Beirut's southern suburbs was in January, when an airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri. That strike was the first time Israel had hit Beirut's suburbs since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.
Israel had been expected to retaliate for the Majdal Shams strike, but diplomats had said in recent days that they expected the response to stay within the boundaries of the ongoing low-level conflict between Hezbollah and Israel without provoking all-out war.
Source: Associated Press, Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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