The target, Fuad Shukr, a senior advisor on military affairs to Hezbollah’s leader, Hasan Nasrallah, was killed in the attack, according to the IDF.
“Hezbollah crossed the red line,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on social media platform X.
Iranian state-run media Press TV claimed the attack killed two people but was unsuccessful in killing Shukr.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not comment on the strike but stressed the U.S. was still hopeful it can reach a diplomatic agreement between Israel and Hezbollah as fears of a wider war mount.
“We do not believe that an all-out war is inevitable, and we believe it can be avoided,” she told reporters.
Shukr served on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s highest military body, and was Nasrallah’s right-hand man, directing and planning military operations along with overseeing drone, missile and force deployment.
He also had a $5 million reward on his head from the FBI for a 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American troops.
The Hezbollah attack on Saturday hit a soccer field in the Golan Heights, killing the 12 children and wounding another 20 in a town dominated by the Druze minority ethnoreligious group.
Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in a brief 1967 war. Israel faced pressure to show it would defend the Druze minorities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the town this week and vowed that Hezbollah would receive a harsh response for the attack.
It’s unclear how Hezbollah will respond to the attack, but the nearly 10-month old conflict, tied to the Gaza war, is teetering toward a larger war as cross-border fire continues daily.
Read more at TheHill.com.
