JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - Israel says it has killed Hezbollah's most senior military commander in an air strike Tuesday.
Israel Defense Forces said 'Israeli Air Force fighter jets eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist organization's most senior military commander' Fuad Shukr in an air strike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Israel had vowed retaliation for the deadly Golan Heights rocket attack that killed a dozen people, mostly children, last week.
Israel's security cabinet on Monday had authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to decide on how and when to respond against perpetrators of the attack.
Israel and the United States blamed Hezbollah for the deadly Golan Heights strike. Shukr was the mastermind behind it, according to IDF. The Lebanese militant group denied it.
It was the deadliest attack targeting Israel since the cross-border attacks by Hamas in Israeli territory on October 7, which is feared to trigger an all-out war.
Shukr, alas al-Hajj Mohsin, 'has directed Hezbollah's attacks on the state of Israel since October 8, and he was the commander responsible for the murder of the 12 children in Majdal Shams in northern Israel on Saturday evening, as well as the killing of numerous Israelis and foreign nationals over the years,' IDF said in a statement.
Lufthansa had suspended flights to and from Lebanon's capital Beirut as a precautionary measure amid fears of Israeli counter attack.
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