Damage caused by the Israeli strike on southern Beirut<\/p>\n
A large explosion ripped through a southern suburb in Lebanon\u2019s capital, Beirut, as the Israeli military carried out a targeted strike against a senior Hezbollah commander, who survived the attack.<\/strong><\/p>\n Lebanon\u2019s official National News Agency (NNA) reported the attack was conducted by a drone that fired three missiles. It said\u00a0the strike had targeted the area around Hezbollah\u2019s Shoura Council in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut.<\/p>\n In a statement, the Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah commander the regime claimed was responsible for last week\u2019s rocket attack on the occupied Golan Heights.<\/p>\n The regime claims Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters were behind the\u00a0rocket strike in Golan, which left a dozen people dead. Hezbollah strongly denies any involvement.<\/p>\n Media reports said that the assassination attempt\u00a0against\u00a0Fuad Shukr\u00a0was a failure. He is the highest military figure in Hezbollah and a longtime advisor to the group’s leader\u00a0Hassan Nasrallah.<\/p>\n A correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13 said Israeli officials were not optimistic about the success of the assassination attempt in Beirut.<\/p>\n Security sources said at least two people were killed in the Israeli attack and 10 others wounded.<\/p>\n The Iranian Embassy in Lebanon condemned the Israeli aggression against Beirut.<\/p>\n \u201cWe condemn in the strongest terms the cowardly and sinful Israeli aggression that targeted the southern suburb of Beirut, which claimed the lives of a number of martyrs and wounded,\u201d the embassy said in a post on X.<\/p>\n An official in Lebanon\u2019s Amal Movement said the targeted building is inhabited by Lebanese citizens. \u201cWhat happened today changes the equations dramatically, as it is a targeting in the depths of the suburb.\u201d<\/p>\n The airstrike was the first in a suburb of Beirut since January, when an Israeli drone attack assassinated senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri.<\/p>\n Hezbollah responded to that act of\u00a0aggression with massive strikes on Israeli military sites, targeting the Israeli military’s sensitive Mount Meron air traffic control base for the first time.<\/p>\n Before Tuesday\u2019s strike, a Hezbollah official said the group rejected calls from international envoys to avoid responding to an Israeli attack.<\/p>\n Hezbollah informed mediators it would still respond to any Israeli attack, the official told reporters.<\/p>\n “International envoys are indirectly raising with us the idea that we should not respond to the expected aggression under the pretext of the need to avoid escalation and sliding towards a comprehensive war,” the Hezbollah official was quoted by Reuters.<\/p>\n Hezbollah had “informed them of our explicit rejection of this request” and would respond, the official said.<\/p>\n Hezbollah has long said it is prepared for any scenario should Israel deepen the war beyond the border area of southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n The two sides have been exchanging fire on an almost daily basis since early October when the Israeli regime launched the ongoing devastating war on Gaza.<\/p>\n Hezbollah has stated that it will halt its rocket and missile attacks on Israeli targets if the war in Gaza comes to an end.<\/p>\n