Hezbollah searching for body of top commander targeted in Israeli strike in Beirut

Civil defence workers look for the inured in the wreckage of the destroyed buildings that were hit by an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. Pic AP

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Wednesday said that they were still searching for the body of a top commander targeted in an Israeli strike in Beirut. At least two children and a woman were also killed in the attack by Israel, while 74 others were wounded, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

The Iran-backed group's first comment on the strike targeting Fouad Shukur came hours after an overnight strike in Tehran on Tuesday that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Israel claimed late on Tuesday that they had killed Shukur, who according to them was behind a rocket attack on Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in which 12 youths had died.

Hezbollah said civil defense workers were still searching for the body of Shukur and the others killed under the rubble of the building Israel struck.

Like most of Hezbollah's military officials, little is known about Shukur, who was also known as Sayed Mohsen. Washington blames him for planning and staging the truck bombing of a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American service members in 1983. The US Treasury Department had offered a $5 million reward for information about him.

Meanwhile, Haniyeh's assassination comes at a precarious time, as United States President Joe Biden's administration has tried to push Hamas and Israel to agree to at least a temporary cease-fire and hostage release deal.

CIA Director Bill Burns was in Rome, Italy, on July 28 to meet with senior officials from Israel, Qatar and Egypt in the latest round of talks. Separately, Brett McGurk, the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, is in the region for talks with U.S. partners.

There was no immediate reaction to the reports of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's assassination from the White House.

Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas after the group attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people. It had also taken around 250 others as hostage.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday. Iran gave no details on how Haniyeh was killed, and the Guard said the attack was under investigation.

Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and had lived in exile in Qatar. The top Hamas leader in Gaza is Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the October 7 attack.

Israel itself did not immediately comment but it often doesn't when it comes to assassinations carried out by their Mossad intelligence agency. Hamas senior official Moussa Abu Marzouk, meanwhile, said that Haniyeh's assassination will not go unanswered, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported Wednesday.

(With Associated Press inputs)