BEIRUT: A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group told AFP that the body of top commander Fuad Shukr had been recovered Wednesday, almost 24 hours after he was killed in an Israeli strike on southern Beirut.
The source, who requested anonymity, said “Shukr’s body has been found under the rubble of the targeted building,” after Israel’s army said it had killed the commander on Tuesday, describing him as the group’s “most senior military commander”.
The Israeli military said its Tuesday strike had “eliminated” Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander it blamed for carrying out a weekend rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children in a Druze Arab town.
Hezbollah said in a statement that “the great jihadist commander brother Fuad Shukr (Hajj Mohsen) was present” in the building targeted by “the Zionist enemy”.
Chairing a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Naib Mikati warned: “Things could get out of hand if the enemy continues its reckless and murderous criminal madness.
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“The strike on the southern suburbs is a strike on... efforts for calm,” Mikati said in a statement released by his office, adding: “Lebanon does not want war”.
In a provisional toll, Lebanon’s health ministry said four civilians — two women and two children —were killed in the strike.
The Israeli army has described Shukr as Hezbollah’s “most senior military commander” and “right-hand man” to the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah.
In 2017, the US Treasury offered $5 million for information on Shukr, in his early sixties, describing him as “a senior adviser” to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Treasury said he had “a central role” in the deadly 1983 bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
Hezbollah has denied responsibility for Saturday’s deadly rocket strike on the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, though the group claimed multiple strikes on Israeli military positions that day.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a “severe” response to the deadly strike.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, sparking war in Gaza.
On the Lebanese side, the violence has killed at least 535 people, most of them fighters but also including 109 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
At least 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed on the Israeli side, including in the Golan Heights, according to army figures.
