The Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah said Wednesday it was searching for the body of a top commander after Israel said they killed him in an airstrike in Beirut.
A Hezbollah statement said Fouad Shukur was in the building that Israeli forces struck Tuesday.
Israel said Shukur was responsible for a Saturday airstrike that killed 12 children playing on a football field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
“Tonight, the [Israel Defense Forces] conducted a precise and professional operation to eliminate Hezbollah’s most senior military commander,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said. “Tonight, we have shown that the blood of our people has a price, and that there is no place out of reach for our forces to this end.”
Shukur was believed to be Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's military adviser and has long been active in the U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
The United States sanctioned him in 2015 and he was wanted by the U.S. for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut.
The Lebanese state-run national news agency said the Israeli strike had targeted the area near Hezbollah's Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of the capital.
Lebanon’s public health ministry said the strike wounded 74 people.
The United Nations expressed “grave concern over the strikes by the Israel Defense Forces on the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut.”
“As we await further clarity on the circumstances, we again urge the parties to exercise maximum restraint and call on all concerned to avoid any further escalation,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement.
Israel and the United States have blamed Hezbollah for the Saturday attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, although Hezbollah has denied responsibility.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded attacks across the border since the start of the war in Gaza last October. Hezbollah has said it is acting in solidarity with Hamas, the same motivation cited by the Yemen-based Houthi militants who have spent months disrupting the key Red Sea shipping route with attacks on vessels. All three groups are backed by Iran.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
