(Beirut) The Israeli army claimed on Tuesday evening to have “eliminated” a Hezbollah commander “responsible” according to it for the deadly shooting on the annexed Golan to which it had promised to retaliate, a new stage in a confrontation which raises fears of a regional conflagration against the backdrop of the continuing war in Gaza.
“Israeli Air Force fighter jets eliminated the top military leader of the terrorist organization Hezbollah and the head of its strategic unit, Fouad Chokr, in the Beirut region,” the army said in a statement.
According to Israeli forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Fouad Chokr was “the commander responsible” for the attack on the annexed Golan.
Three civilians – a woman and two children – were killed and 74 others injured in the Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, according to a preliminary report from the local health ministry.
PHOTO ANWAR AMRO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Debris covers damaged vehicles after an Israeli military strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
According to a source close to Hezbollah, Fouad Chokr, who plays “a leading role in Hezbollah’s operations against Israel from southern Lebanon,” survived the strike.
AFP was unable to immediately verify this information.
Hezbollah is accused by Israel and the United States of being behind Saturday’s deadly strike on the town of Majdal Shams, located in the Israeli-annexed part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which killed 12 youths aged 10 to 16 as they played in a soccer stadium.
PHOTO ANWAR AMRO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Passers-by gathered at the site of the Israeli strike.
Hezbollah has “crossed the red line,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday evening, minutes after the strike.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Monday promised a “severe response” to the attack, was conducting an “assessment of the security situation” at the Defense Ministry on Tuesday evening, according to his office.
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, at the site of the strike, the top floor of an eight-story building was ripped open, leaving a gaping chasm from which electrical wires hung. Ambulances, sirens blaring, tried to force their way through a dense crowd of passers-by gathered around cars covered in debris, according to AFP images.
According to the US State Department, Fouad Chokr played “a key role” in “Hezbollah military operations in Syria” but also in the attack that left more than 200 dead in 1983 among US Marines in Beirut.
In 2017, Washington announced that it was offering rewards in exchange for information useful in tracking down two Hezbollah leaders, including Fouad Chokr.
Fears of an extension to Lebanon of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas and of a generalized conflict in the region are growing.
The Israeli army spokesman said Tuesday night that “Hezbollah’s ongoing aggression and brutal attacks are dragging the people of Lebanon and the entire Middle East into a broader escalation.” “Although we prefer to resolve hostilities without a broader conflict, (the Israeli army) is fully prepared for all scenarios,” Hagari added.
Concerns of the international community
Hezbollah is an ally of Hamas and, in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, it opened a front against Israel in southern Lebanon the day after the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, triggering the war. Since then, the Lebanese movement and the Israeli army have exchanged fire almost daily on their common border.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Israel had the “right to defend itself” against Hezbollah, adding: “We still need to work on a diplomatic solution to end the attacks.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli strike, denouncing it as a “flagrant aggression” and a “criminal act” and calling on the international community to “put pressure” on Israel to “stop” the attack. […] his threats.”
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The war broke out on October 7, when Hamas commandos carried out an attack in southern Israel that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Iran, which supports Hezbollah, has assured that this attack will not prevent “the proud Lebanese resistance from continuing […] to support the oppressed Palestinians and fight against Israeli aggression.
Russia, for its part, accused Israel of violating international law.
“The solution cannot be military,” said the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
The international community is stepping up efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Tank fire targeted eastern Khan Younis early Tuesday, according to AFP correspondents, citing witnesses.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket in northern Israel and the army said it responded to a barrage of rockets by firing toward Lebanon.
It had previously announced that it had struck “around ten Hezbollah terrorist targets” in “seven different areas” in southern Lebanon, and killed a member of the armed movement.
In response to the strikes, Hezbollah said it had launched several attacks, including two in northern Israel.
300 dead
The war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7, when Hamas commandos carried out an attack in southern Israel that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped at the time, 111 are still being held in Gaza, including 39 who died, according to the army.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Civil Defense announced that the Israeli military operation launched on July 22 in the Khan Younis governorate had left around 300 dead.
In response, Israel has promised to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in the Palestinian territory since 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organisation, as do the United States and the European Union.
His army has launched an offensive that has so far killed 39,400 people, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry, which does not give details on the number of civilians and fighters killed.
On Tuesday, strikes and artillery fire were reported in Khan Younis and Rafah (south), on the al-Bureij camp (center), and in Gaza City (north).
The Civil Defense announced that the Israeli military operation launched on July 22 in the Khan Younis governorate had left around 300 dead.
The army said on Tuesday that it had completed the operation and killed “more than 150 terrorists.”
Tank fire targeted eastern Khan Younis early Tuesday, AFP correspondents said, citing witnesses. At least eight bodies were found in the area, rescuers and doctors said.
Syria holds ceremony after Golan strike
Syrian authorities held a ceremony on Tuesday in the part of the Golan Heights they control in memory of the twelve young Druze killed by a rocket in a locality occupied by Israel on the plateau.
In a tent set up in the town of Quneitra, dozens of men including Druze dignitaries took turns to offer their condolences, an AFP journalist noted.
The ceremony took place just a few hundred metres from the barbed wire that separates the Israeli- and Syrian-controlled parts of the disputed territory.
“We came to show our solidarity with our loved ones, the families of the martyrs of Majdal Shams,” said Jawdat Taliaa, a Druze cleric.