HEZBOLLAH'S top commander has been wiped out in an airstrike on Beirut, Israel has claimed.
The IDF said Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah's most senior military commander, was killed in a "targeted" strike in the south of the Lebanese capital - a known stronghold for the Iran-backed rebels.
Shukr was responsible for the horror Golan Heights attack that killed 12 children playing football, Israel claimed.
The IDF said it carried out "a targeted strike" on the "commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians".
Shukr was the target of an "intelligence-based elimination" by fighter jets, officials added.
Hezbollah admitted Shukr was in the building when it was hit - but have not yet confirmed if he was killed.
Lebanon said three people were killed, including two children, and 74 people were wounded in the strike - which blew a huge hole in an eight-storey apartment building.
The blast is set to heighten fears of a broader war in the Middle East - with Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza also raging on.
Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh was also killed on Wednesday after an Israeli airstrike on his home in Iran, the terror group claimed.
According to the US, Shukr was Hezbollah leader's Hassan Nasrallah right-hand man and a member of the Jihad Council - the group's highest military council.
He had also taken part in the group's efforts in Syria's civil war, where it has backed Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The US had offered a $5million reward for information on Shukr and claimed he played a "central role" in the 1983 bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 US military men.
Shukr - who joined Hezbollah in the 1980s - was also named by Israel several years ago as a commander of Hezbollah’s precision missile project.
The IDF said he was "responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs".
He was also responsible for the group’s "force build-up, planning, and execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel", the IDF added.
Tuesday's strike sparked mass panic on the ground in Beirut - with ambulances racing to the scene and people trying to rush back to their homes.
The capital has been on edge for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli strike in retaliation for the Golan Heights strike - which Hezbollah denies carrying out.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to hit back at Hezbollah after the deadly blast.
Meanwhile, Lebanese PM Najib Mikati has criticised what he called Israel's "blatant Israeli aggression" against Beirut.
He described the strike as a "criminal act" in a "series of aggressive operations killing civilians in clear and explicit violation of international law".
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said his government planned to complain to the United Nations.
Hezbollah - or the Party of God - is a Shia Muslim movement which emerged during the early 1980s with financial backing from Iran.
The group is now considered an Iranian proxy army and the group is committed to destroying Israel.
In 2001, UK ministers banned its external security organisation and seven years later, the proscription was extended to Hezbollah's military wing.
A listing in the official register of banned groups says Hezbollah is "committed to armed resistance to the state of Israel, and aims to seize all Palestinian territories and Jerusalem from Israel".
It added: "Its military wing supports terrorism in Iraq and the Palestinian territories."
Brit officials have accused the Iran organisation of destabilising the Middle East and it is a proscribed group in the UK.
Any members in the UK or supporters could be jailed for up to 10 years.
Bou Habib also said he hoped any response by Hezbollah would not trigger an escalation.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, previously warned that any Israeli attack on Lebanon would have "serious consequences".
It means fears of pandemonium in the Middle East are set to grow with Israel now at war both with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are militant groups backed by Iran, which itself fired missiles into Israel in April.
Already adding to Israeli headaches are the Houthis in Yemen, another proxy power of Iran.
It is feared the Israelis face multiple theatres of war from different directions.
Former British army colonel Richard Kemp recently told The Sun: "Iran has shown some scale, I suppose you call it, at coordinating actions and using one front to retaliate against actions on another front."
The US was urging foes in the region to resolve their differences diplomatically rather than with rockets.
Only hours before a rocket was fired into Beirut, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said: "While we’ve seen a lot of activity on Israel’s northern border, we remain concerned about the potential of this escalating into a full-blown fight.
"And I don’t believe that a fight is inevitable.
“We’d like to see things resolved in a diplomatic fashion.”
Hezbollah had already evacuated some of its known position in Lebanon in anticipation of an Israeli strike.
6,000.000+downloads/Free/Bengali/Version2.3.4
777 BDT IPL 2025 Sports First Deposit Bonus
