From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
IDF says senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in Beirut airstrike
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces confirms that top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut earlier this evening.
In a statement, the IDF says that Shukr, also known as Hajj Mohsin, is Hezbollah’s most senior military commander.
Shukr sat on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body, and was considered to be the head of its strategic division.
The IDF says he was also a senior military advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, describing him as his “right-hand man.”
Since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, Shukr has been managing Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel, including the deadly strike in Majdal Shams over the weekend that killed 12 children, according to the military.
The IDF says he was “responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs” and for the terror group’s “force build-up, planning, and execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel.”
He joined Hezbollah in 1985 and has held several senior positions. The IDF says that in the 1990s he advanced numerous attacks against the IDF and allied South Lebanon Army, and in 2000, was involved in the abduction of three Israeli soldiers in an attack in the Mount Dov area.
