Body of Hezbollah military commander found in rubble in Beirut

Lebanese group Hezbollah has confirmed that Shukr was killed in an Israeli attack in southern Beirut.

The Israeli military announced it carried out a “precision strike” in Beirut on Tuesday that killed Shukr, claiming that he had been responsible for the missile strike that killed 12 children playing football in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. Hezbollah has denied carrying out the attack.

Hezbollah, who previously announced Shukr had survived the attack, said in a statement on Wednesday that “the great jihadist commander brother Fuad Shukr (Hajj Mohsen) was present” in the building targeted by “the Zionist enemy”.

Announcing his death, the group added that Shukr’s presence was “a distinctive force for resistance” and stated their leader, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, would make an address on the occasion of Shukr’s funeral on Thursday.

Shukr, also known as al-Hajj Mohsen, was born in Nabatieh in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon. He was among Hezbollah’s founders after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

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. At least 5 people were killed and 74 wounded in the raid.