Israeli strike on Beirut ‘targets Hezbollah commander’

An Israeli air strike has targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs in what the Israeli military says is retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack three days before that killed 12 children and teenagers.

A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs – a stronghold of the Iran-aligned Lebanese armed group Hezbollah – about 7.40pm on Tuesday (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 news agency said an Israeli air strike had targeted the area around Hezbollah’s Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of the capital.

A Hezbollah official and the group’s TV station said that an Israeli air strike hit the area, causing damage.

People in Beirut have been on edge for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli attack in reprisal for the rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last weekend that 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”.

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.

As diplomats sought to contain the fallout, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe a fight was inevitable between Hezbollah and Israel although 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 towards war.

In the latest exchanges of fire, 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 10 Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon and killed one Hezbollah fighter – attacks which appeared to be in keeping with the pattern of the past nine months.

Hezbollah confirmed one of its fighters was killed.