The body of senior Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr was recovered Wednesday from the rubble of a building in southern Beirut that was targeted in an Israeli strike. The recovery came almost 24 hours after Israel confirmed that it had targeted Shukr in an airstrike on the Lebanese capital.
A Lebanese source close to Hezbollah on Wednesday told AFP that, "Shukr's body has been found under the rubble of the targeted building".
Reuters also quoted two unnamed security sources confirming that the body of the senior Hezbollah commander had been found in the rubble almost 24 hours after Israel said it had targeted Shukr in Tuesday’s strike.
Earlier Wednesday, Hezbollah confirmed that Shukr was inside the targeted building, but said his fate was still unknown.
The Israeli military had already claimed that its Tuesday strike had "eliminated" Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander it said was responsible for carrying out a weekend rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children.
In a provisional toll, Lebanon's health ministry said three civilians -- a woman 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 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 Binyamin 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 534 people, most of them fighters but also including 108 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.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
