By Spy Uganda Correspondent
Israel on Tuesday launched drone attacks in southern Lebanon as conflict spirals between the bordering states.
The Israeli attack was the first lethal action following a rocket attack on Saturday that Israel says killed 12 children and youths in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The strike has increased concern that the war in Gaza threatens to escalate into a regional conflict.
Following the attack, Israel said its strike in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, who it blamed for a deadly attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “Israeli Air Force fighter jets eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s most senior military commander” Fu’ad Shukr. Hezbollah but Lebanese authorities have not yet confirmed the death.
At least three people were killed in the Israeli strike targeting a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and 74 people were injured, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The health ministry said two children and a woman were killed in the strike, Lebanese media reported. The injured, including some with serious wounds, were taken to nearby hospitals, according to earlier reporting from Lebanese state news agency NNA.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said “Hezbollah crossed the red line” in a social media post minutes after the Israeli military claimed responsibility for the retaliatory strike on Tuesday. The Iran-backed group has denied being behind the Golan Heights strike three days earlier.
Meanwhile, Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a separate post on his official X account that “every dog shall have his day.”
The sequence of attacks mark the most significant Israeli escalation since tensions between Israel and Hezbollah flared after October 7.
The IDF said Shukr, also known as al-Hajj Mohsin, “has directed Hezbollah’s attacks on the state of Israel since October 8, and he was the commander responsible for the murder of the 12 children in Majdal Shams in northern Israel on Saturday evening, as well as the killing of numerous Israelis and foreign nationals over the years.”
Shukr is a senior adviser to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and serves in the group’s “highest military body, the Jihad Council,” according to the US government website.
The US State Department has a $5 million reward for information on him. In September 2019, the State Department designated him a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224,” more than four years after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Shukr and two other Hezbollah leaders.
According to a senior Israeli official, Israel wanted to send “a very strong message” with Tuesday’s strike, but hopes to avoid further escalation.
“We don’t want this to escalate into a wider war and ultimately whether this escalates or not very much depends on how Hezbollah reacts now,” the senior Israeli official told CNN.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli attack, saying it was a clear violation of international law. The attack that killed and wounded dozens of Lebanese citizens “is a criminal act,” Mikati told NNA.
Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar told the Lebanese news channel NBN “the enemy knows that the resistance will not be quiet about an assault like this. As our people have become accustomed, this blood will not have been shed in vain.”
Mikati called upon the international community “to assume its responsibility to pressure Israel to stop its aggression and its threats and to implement international resolutions.”
The Iranian Embassy in Lebanon denounced the Israeli strike on Beirut, calling it “cowardly and sinful Israeli aggression” that “claimed the lives of a number of martyrs and wounded,” in a post on X. The Iran-backed Houthis and Hamas also condemned the strike and declared solidarity with Lebanon.
