Ambulances rushed to the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday (30/7) night, in what the Israeli military said was retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack three days earlier that killed 12 children and teenagers.
A loud explosion was heard and a plume of smoke was seen rising over an area on the southern outskirts of the city – a stronghold of the Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah – at around 7.40pm local time, an eyewitness told Reuters. Reuters.
A senior Lebanese security source said a senior Hezbollah commander had been targeted in an air strike and his fate was still unclear.
Lebanon's state-run national news agency said Israeli air strikes had targeted areas around Hezbollah's Shura Council in the capital's Haret Hreik neighborhood.
Beirut has been on alert for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli strike, in retaliation for a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday that killed 12 children on a soccer field in a Druze village.
Hezbollah has denied involvement in the attack.
Meanwhile, the United States will continue to pursue diplomacy to prevent an escalation of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah group, the State Department said Tuesday. Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said at a news conference that the U.S. continues to seek a diplomatic solution.
“You heard Admiral Kirby say this yesterday and so do I: We do not believe that full-scale war is inevitable, and we still believe that it is avoidable. We continue to work toward a diplomatic resolution that will allow Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes and live in peace and security. We certainly want to avoid any form of escalation. And that is why we continue to focus on diplomacy,” Patel said. (ns/uh)
