Israeli army announces strike on Beirut suburb targeting “person responsible” for Golan attack

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that Hezbollah had “crossed the red line” after the deadly attack on the Golan Heights, which Israel had vowed to retaliate against.

The Israeli army carried out a strike on Tuesday, July 30, on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Lebanese Hezbollah, targeting, according to it, a commander “responsible” of the deadly attack on the Golan Heights, to which Israel had promised to respond.A source close to Hezbollah said that military leader Fouad Shokr escaped the Israeli strike, but reported at least two deaths.

“The Israeli army carried out a targeted attack in Beirut against the commander responsible for the murder of the children of Majdal Shams and many other Israeli civilians”the IDF said in a statement, referring to the attack Saturday in the Druze town in the Israeli-annexed part of the Syrian Golan Heights, in which 12 young people were killed.

This rocket attack on a football field was attributed by Israel, as well as by the United States, to the Lebanese Islamist movement, which denied it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had assured on Monday that his country would provide a “severe response” to the attack. Minutes after the Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on X that Hezbollah had “crossed the red line”.

The strike has revived fears that the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, could spill over into Lebanon and lead to a wider conflict in the region. An Israeli civilian was killed Tuesday when a rocket landed in northern Israel, according to emergency services, and the army said it responded to a barrage of rockets by firing into Lebanon. It had earlier announced that it had struck “A dozen Hezbollah terrorist targets” In “seven different zones” from southern Lebanon, and killed a member of the armed movement.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday “deeply concerned by the growing threat of generalized conflict throughout the region” and has “urged all parties and the international community to work urgently to defuse tensions”. Several airlines have suspended flights to Beirut since Monday, including Air France, which has however specified that it plans to resume its service on Wednesday. The CEO of Middle East Airlines, the Lebanese national airline, Mohammad al-Hout, assured that the airport “had not received any threats“.