ISRAEL says it has fired a “targeted strike” into Lebanon capital Beirut, blasting away a senior Hezbollah commander amid fears of all-out war.
A loud explosion was heard as smoke filled the air in the city’s south, a known Hezbollah stronghold.
It comes as a response to the Hezbollah strike on Israeli territory Golan Heights over the weekend that killed 12 children on a football pitch.
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) confirmed it dealt the blow in a statement on X.
It said: “The IDF carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, on the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians.”
The Beirut blast is set to heighten fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East, with Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza also raging on.
Israel Defence Minister Yoav Gallant put out his own statement on X, saying: “Hezbollah crossed the red line.”
It’s unclear whether any civilians were killed in the strike.
Al Jazeera reported mass panic on the ground, with ambulances racing to the scene and people trying to rush back to their homes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to hit back at Hezbollah after the Golan Heights horror, which the terror group denies responsibility for.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, 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.
The US was urging foes in the region to resolve their differences diplomatically rather than with rockets.
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 therefore 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.”
