This is a breaking news story; more details to follow.
Lebanese group Hezbollah has confirmed in a statement that its senior commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli attack in southern Beirut.
In a statement on Telegram, the group said Shukr’s presence was “a distinctive force for resistance” and added that their leader, Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, would make an address on the occasion of Shukr’s funeral on Thursday.
The Israeli military said it carried out a “precision strike” in Beirut that killed Shukr on Tuesday. Hezbollah previously said Shukr had survived.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said three people, including two children, were killed and 74 wounded in the attack that the Israeli military described as a “targeted assassination operation” against Shukr, also known as Mohsen Shukr and al-Hajj Mohsen.
On Tuesday, the attack on a densely populated area in Beirut’s suburbs hit the Haret Hreik neighbourhood near Hezbollah’s Shura Council, its central decision-making authority.
Reporting from Beirut, media’s Zeina Khodr said the Israeli messaging is that this was their promised response to the Majdal Shams attack and that they are not interested in more armed confrontation with Hezbollah beyond this.
While Hezbollah has promised to respond to any kind of attack from Israel, Khodr said that a coordinated response from Iran and its regional allies following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh this morning in Tehran, could take place.
In a televised statement on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel faces “challenging times ahead” but that it is “prepared for all scenarios”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denounced strikes on Beirut and Tehran as a “dangerous escalation,” after Israel targeted a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas said its political chief was killed in Iran.
“The Secretary-General believes that the attacks we have seen in South Beirut and Tehran represent a dangerous escalation at a moment in which all efforts should instead be leading to a ceasefire in Gaza”, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
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