Hezbollah confirms Israeli strike in Beirut assassinates senior commander

Hezbollah has confirmed that Israel assassinated Fuad Shukr, a top commander, after a strike in Beirut.

The Lebanese group's announcement on Wednesday came after an overnight Israeli strike in Tehran that assassinated Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The group said earlier that Shukr was in the building during the attack on Tuesday, and they were searching for him in the rubble to determine his fate.

Israel said late on Tuesday that it had assassinated Shukr, who it said blamed for the weekend rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 youths.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least five civilians — two children and three women — died in the Israeli strike in a busy neighbourhood where Hezbollah has political and security operations.

The two sides have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of Israel's war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that was unlikely to escalate into full-on war.

Israeli enemy to 'pay a price'

Lebanon's public health ministry said Tuesday's strike in a southern suburb of Beirut wounded 74 people, some of them seriously.

The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals. Bahman Hospital near the site of the blast called for blood donations.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the strike was carried out with a drone that launched three rockets.

“The Israeli enemy has committed a great stupid act in size, timing and circumstances by targeting an entirely civilian area,” Hezbollah official Ali Ammar told Al Manar TV.

"The Israeli enemy will pay a price for this sooner or later.”

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli attack, saying it hit a few meters from one of the largest hospitals in the capital.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately release a statement, but minutes after the strike sent a photo of the prime minister with his national security adviser and other officials.

The airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik — a crowded urban neighborhood where Hezbollah has political and security operations but which is also full of small shops and apartment buildings — damaged several buildings.

The strike hit an apartment building near to a hospital, collapsing half of the targeted building and severely damaging one next to it. The hospital sustained minor damages, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass.

Paramedics could be seen carrying several wounded people out of the damaged buildings.