IDF retaliates for Golan Heights attack with strike on Beirut, says Israel

An Israeli air strike targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut, Lebanon’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 and teenagers. According to witnesses, a loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. Two senior security sources have told Reuters that the head of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah’s operations centre, Muhsin Shukr, survived the Israeli strike that was aimed at killing him.

In Washington, D.C., White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that the U.S. does not believe war between Hezbollah and Israel is “inevitable” and diplomatic resolution is being pursued. Beirut has been on edge for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli attack in reprisal for the rocket strike on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Saturday, which killed 12 in a football field in a Druze village. Israel and the U.S. have blamed Hezbollah for the attack, while Hezbollah has denied responsibility.