Hezbollah confirms top commander killed in Israeli strike
ITV News International Editor Emma Murphy brings the latest updates from Lebanon.
Hezbollah has confirmed one of its top commanders was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut.
The Iran-backed group confirmed that Fouad Shukur, the commander allegedly behind the recent strike on the Golan Heights that killed 12 children, had been killed.
Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the Golan Heights attack.
It comes after an overnight strike in Tehran that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Hamas and Iran blamed on Israel.
Shukr was also suspected of being behind the deadly 1983 Marine bombing in the Lebanese capital which killed 241 US military personnel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had “carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, on the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians.”
Lebanese state news agency NNA said the attack was conducted by a drone that fired three missiles.
The strike hit an apartment building next to a hospital, collapsing half of it.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least five civilians - two children and three women - died in the strike in a busy neighbourhood where Hezbollah has political and security operations.
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 strike on Tuesday.
A Hezbollah official, Ali Ammar, said: “The Israeli enemy has committed a great stupid act in size, timing and circumstances by targeting an entirely civilian area.
"The Israeli enemy will pay a price for this sooner or later.”
The last time Israel targeted Beirut was in January when an airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri.
It marked the first time Israel had hit Beirut since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.
The two sides have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that was unlikely to escalate into full-on war.
But stressed that the Biden administration did not see all-out war as inevitable, adding that the President believed a diplomatic solution was still possible as its important to “continue to be optimistic here".
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