Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah fired a large number of missiles at Israel on Sunday in retaliation for the killing of its senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut last month.
Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging gunfire since October 7, while both sides have tried to avoid a major clash. Though both sides have tried to avoid a major clash, tensions escalated after Israel launched a missile attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killing 12 people. Although Hezbollah denied involvement in that attack, Israel responded with targeted air strikes, killing Fuad Shukr and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
On Sunday, the Iran-backed movement said the attack was a response to Israel’s actions and declared they had completed the “first phase” of retaliation against the Jewish state, Reuters reports.
Who was Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr?
Fuad Shukr, also known as “al-Haj Mohsen”, was a senior commander in Hezbollah, a militant group based in Lebanon that is widely considered a terrorist organization by several countries, including the United States and Israel. Shukr was one of the founding members of Hezbollah during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. He was part of a generation of Lebanese Shiites who allied with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to establish the group.
He was a close associate of former Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008. Shukr’s prominence in the group rose after Mughniyeh’s death.
The US accused Shukra of playing a central role in the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 American military personnel. The attack remains one of the deadliest attacks against US forces in the Middle East. The US government had placed a bounty of up to $5 million on Shukra’s head under its Rewards for Justice program.
Fuad Shukr served as a senior military commander in Hezbollah’s forces in southern Lebanon and was a member of the Jihad Council, the group’s highest military body. He played a key role in Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria, particularly in supporting President Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War. Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria was crucial to Assad’s survival during the early years of the conflict.
Fuad Shukr was also a special advisor to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and a member of the Shura Council, the key decision-making body within the organization.
On 30 July, Fuad Shukr was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. After the airstrike, Lebanese security sources said Shukr was seriously injured. His death was later confirmed by Israeli broadcast reports.
