An Israeli strike targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs at dusk on Tuesday, a senior Lebanese security source said, adding that the commander’s fate remained unclear.
A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs - a stronghold of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah - at around 7:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), a Reuters witness said.
A spokesman for the Israeli army said that Israel targeted a Hezbollah commander “responsible for the killing of children in Majdal Shams and many Israelis.”
A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah told AFP an Israeli strike hit its stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“Israel has struck the Beirut southern suburb,” the source said, requesting anonymity.
Lebanon’s state-run national news agency said an Israeli strike had targeted the area around Hezbollah’s Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of the capital.
An AFP photographer on the ground said the last floor of an eight-story building was hit and that ambulances had converged at the site of the strike.
Beirut has been on edge for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli attack in retaliation for a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed a dozen youngsters.
Israel and the United States have blamed Hezbollah for the attack. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.
