The Israeli military said it carried out a targeted strike in Beirut on Tuesday targeting the Hezbollah commander it said was responsible for an attack in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teenagers over the weekend.
A loud explosion was heard and a column of smoke could be seen rising over the southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, at around 7:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), a Reuters The witness said.
“The Israel Defense Forces carried out a targeted strike in Beirut against the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the murder of numerous additional Israeli civilians,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
He said he had not issued any new instructions for civil defense in Israel after the attack.
A senior Lebanese security source said the commander's fate remained unclear.
Lebanon's state-run national news agency said an Israeli strike targeted the area around Hezbollah's Shura Council in the capital's Haret Hreik neighborhood.
Beirut has been on alert for days over the prospect of an anticipated Israeli strike in retaliation for an attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed a dozen young men.
Israel and the United States have blamed Hezbollah for the attack, but Hezbollah has denied responsibility.
