Israeli strike shatters uneasy Beirut calm

Air raid targets senior Hezbollah commander

BEIRUT/ GAZA/JERUSALEM:

An Israeli air strike targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut's southern suburbs late on Tuesday in what the Israeli military said was retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack three days before that killed 12 children and teenagers.

A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs - a stronghold of Hezbollah - at around 7:40pm, a Reuters witness said.

A senior Lebanese security source said a senior Hezbollah commander had been the target of the air strike and his fate remained unclear. Lebanon's state-run national news agency said an Israeli air strike had targeted the area around Hezbollah's Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of the capital.

Beirut has been on edge for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli attack in reprisal for the rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday that killed the 12 youngsters in a football field in a Druze village. Hezbollah has denied involvement in that attack.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it had conducted "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".

Earlier on Tuesday, more rocket fire from south Lebanon killed a civilian in a kibbutz in northern Israel, medics said. Shortly before the explosion in south Beirut, the Israeli military said 15 projectiles had been fired across the Lebanese border within the past few hours, with impacts in parts of the Upper Galilee region. No injuries were reported.

Concerns about escalation

As diplomats sought to contain the fallout, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe a fight was inevitable between Hezbollah and Israel, though he remained concerned about the potential for escalation.

In the latest exchanges of fire on Tuesday, the Israeli military said 10 rockets had been fired from Lebanon and one hit Kibbutz Hagoshrim, causing one casualty