Tuesday July 30, 2024
Hezbollah has denied responsibility for strike in Golan Heights that killed 12 children
This image shows damage after what security sources said was a strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday. (Ahmed Al-Kerdi/Reuters)
An Israeli air strike targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut's southern suburbs late on Tuesday, in what the Israeli military said was retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack three days before that killed 12 children.
A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital — a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah — at around 7:40 p.m. local time, a Reuters witness said.
A senior Lebanese security source said a senior Hezbollah commander had been the target of the air strike and his fate remained unclear.
Lebanon's state-run national news agency said an Israeli air strike had targeted the area around Hezbollah's Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of the capital.
Beirut has been on edge for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli attack in reprisal for the rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, which killed the 12 youngsters in a football field in a Druze village.
Hezbollah has denied involvement in that attack.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it had conducted "a targeted strike in Beirut on the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians." Details would follow.
Earlier on Tuesday, more rocket fire from south Lebanon killed a civilian in a kibbutz in northern Israel, medics said.
Shortly before the explosion in south Beirut, the Israeli military said 15 projectiles had been fired across the Lebanese border within the past few hours, with impacts in parts of the Upper Galilee region. No injuries were reported.
Israel's air force had just hit a Hezbollah observation post and "terror infrastructure" in south Lebanon, it added.
Concerns about escalation
As diplomats sought to contain the fallout, U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe a fight was inevitable between Hezbollah and Israel, though he remained concerned about the potential for escalation.
Hezbollah and Israel, which last fought each other in a major war in 2006, have been trading fire since the eruption of the Gaza war in October, after Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets, in what it says is solidarity with the Palestinians.
The hostilities have mostly been limited to the frontier region and both sides have previously indicated they do not seek a wider confrontation, even as the conflict has prompted worry about the risk of a slide toward war.
In the latest exchanges of fire on Tuesday, the Israeli military said 10 rockets had been fired from Lebanon and one hit Kibbutz Hagoshrim, causing one casualty. Israel's ambulance service said the 30-year-old male died of shrapnel wounds.
Israel said it hit some 10 Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon overnight and killed one Hezbollah fighter. Hezbollah confirmed one of its fighters was killed.