JERUSALEM

The Israeli military said late Tuesday that it assassinated Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah's top military commander, in a strike on Beirut's southern suburbs.

There has been no comment from Hezbollah on the attack so far.

“In a targeted, intelligence-based elimination, Israeli Air Force fighter jets eliminated Hezbollah’s most senior military commander and the head of its Strategic Unit, Fuad Shukr ‘Sayyid Muhsan’, in the area of Beirut,” the army said in a statement.

The army noted that Shukr served as “Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah's right-hand man and was Nasrallah's adviser for planning and directing wartime operations.”

The statement claimed that Shukr “has directed Hezbollah's attacks on the State of Israel since October 8th, and he was the commander responsible for the murder of the 12 children in (the town of) Majdal Shams in northern Israel on Saturday evening.”

Earlier Tuesday, a loud explosion was heard in a southern Beirut suburb after an Israeli strike amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, according to Lebanese media.

The strike was reported in the vicinity of the Hezbollah Shura Council’s headquarters in Haret Hreik, the state-run National News Agency reported.

It said the attack was carried out by an Israeli drone that fired three missiles into a building, destroying two floors.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said a woman and two children were killed and 69 others injured, three critically, in the attack.

The Israeli army confirmed the strike, claiming that it targeted a Hezbollah commander responsible for Saturday’s missile attack in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

While Israel blamed Hezbollah for Saturday’s attack, the Lebanese group denied any responsibility.

Israeli Army Radio reported that the military instructed residents in towns near the Lebanese border to remain in shelters in anticipation of potential retaliation from Hezbollah.

Fears have grown about a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah amid an exchange of cross-border attacks between the two sides.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of a deadly Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip which has killed more than 39,300 people since last October, following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio