The Israeli military said a Tuesday strike in Beirut was successful in killing its target, a top Hezbollah commander who was allegedly responsible for a deadly rocket strike that killed 12 children in Israel’s Golan Heights.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said fighter jets struck an area in Beirut and killed Fuad Shukr, the most senior military commander in Hezbollah and the right-hand man to the Lebanese militia group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Shukr was the top adviser on military planning operations, according to the IDF, and he directed the Hezbollah attack on Saturday that killed 12 children and wounded another roughly 20 in the town of Majdal Shams, which is dominated by the Druze minority ethnoreligious group.
Earlier Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not comment on the strike.
But she stressed the U.S. was still hopeful it could reach a diplomatic agreement between Israel and Hezbollah as fears spread that a larger war in Lebanon was fast approaching.
“We do not believe that an all-out war is inevitable and we believe it can be avoided,” she said at a briefing.
Hezbollah did not immediately offer comment on the IDF’s claims. But Iranian state-run media outlet Press TV claimed that two people were killed and dozens injured, but that Shukr was not among the dead.
Shukr led Hezbollah’s Strategic Unit and was responsible for the Iranian-backed militia group’s force planning and advanced weapons, including drones and precision-guided missiles.
He joined Hezbollah in 1985; planned military attacks in the 1990s on Israel, including the abduction of the bodies of three Israeli soldiers in the 2000s; and rose to become a member of the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s highest-ranking military forum, the IDF said.
Israel has killed some 300 Hezbollah fighters, including top officials, in the nearly 10-month-old conflict, which is tied to the war in Gaza. Israeli strikes have also previously targeted Beirut.
But Shukr’s death would amount to the largest blow in the organization since the conflict broke out on Oct. 8, a day after Iranian-backed Hamas invaded southern Israel in a deadly surprise attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced pressure to retaliate after the Hezbollah Saturday attack on Majdal Shams, particularly to show Israel would defend the Druze. He had vowed Hezbollah would pay the price, and his forces mounted smaller-scale attacks on Sunday and Monday. It’s not clear if Israel will retaliate again.
Hezbollah has yet to release a public statement on how it would respond to the Israeli strike, but analysts say a major war is becoming more likely as fighting continues. Even a cease-fire in Gaza is unlikely to stop an Israeli operation in Lebanon, unless Hezbollah were to agree to withdraw from the border at a safe enough distance to allow for the return of some 80,000 evacuated Israeli civilians.