On Tuesday evening, Israeli defense officials announced they conducted a drone strike in a Beirut suburb targeting a Hezbollah operative whom they allege was responsible for the recent attack with an Iranian-made Falaq rocket that resulted in the deaths of a dozen Druze children in the Golan Heights.
Israel’s Ynet News reported that the incursion eliminated Faud Shukr, the Tehran-backed militia’s senior military commander and close associate of the organization’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.
In an operational statement from the IDF, the 62-year-old Lebanese national was described as “responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precision-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs,” while also involving himself in the “force build-up, planning, and execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel.”
In addition to his position as a high-ranking member of the terror group, Shukur was wanted by the United States for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of a United States Marine Corps facility in Beirut that caused the deaths of 241 Americans, 58 French citizens, and 6 local residents. The U.S. State Department had an active $5 million reward for his capture at the time of his death.
The incident follows several days of Western mediation to prevent Jerusalem from escalating regional tensions in response to Saturday’s killing of the 12 young individuals who were playing soccer in the community of Majdal Shams.
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