Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Tuesday that Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, the mastermind behind a drone attack that killed 12 children and young people over the weekend, has been killed.
Shukr, also known as Haji Mohsin, joined Hezbollah in 1985 and was wanted by the US government in connection with a 1983 suicide bombing at a Marine barracks in Berit that killed 241 US soldiers.
Shukr was a senior adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an IDF attack south of Beirut on Tuesday.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the news in a press release, saying their warplanes had “eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s highest-ranking military commander.” [Shukr]in the capital of Lebanon.
Hezbollah confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that Shukr was inside the building when it was attacked, but did not say whether he was killed. According to The Times of Israel.
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The Israel Defense Forces said it killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in an airstrike in Beirut on Tuesday. (Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Office)
“As head of Hezbollah’s strategic forces, Fuad was in charge of much of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precision-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets and drones,” the statement said. “He was responsible for building, planning and executing terrorist attacks against the State of Israel.”
Recently, Hezbollah killed more than a dozen children at a soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in a rocket attack on Saturday, a claim that Hezbollah has denied, but which the Israel Defense Forces and U.S. military have disputed.
The attack infuriated Israeli authorities, who immediately launched missiles into Lebanon, including one that hit an apartment building next to a hospital in Beirut’s Haret Freik district.
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People look at a damaged car in Beirut on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Hussein Marra)
A senior Israeli official told Fox News on Tuesday that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had been in contact with the US. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had this to say about the current situation:
“This was to send a clear message: we do not want to see another war,” the source said. “Now it is in Hezbollah’s hands. This response, along with other options, was being discussed within 24 hours of the rocket attacks on the Golan Heights.”
Regarding X, Gallant said Shukr has “a lot of Israeli blood on his hands.”
“Tonight we have shown that the blood of our people has a price, and there is nowhere our troops cannot reach for this purpose,” he added.
Men walk through rubble and destroyed cars after an Israeli airstrike destroyed the top floor of a building in Beirut on Tuesday. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
In a statement about X, Republican Senator Mike Walz of Florida praised the Israel Defense Forces for removing Shukr, referencing the 1983 raid on a Marine barracks.
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“Thank you Israel to the victims and families of the 1983 Beirut bombing,” Waltz, an Army veteran, wrote. “Semper Fi.”
Daniel Wallace, Trey Yingst and Gillian Turner of The Associated Press, Reuters and Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
