BEIRUT/JERUSALEM — Israel's military claimed it killed Hezbollah's most senior commander in an airstrike on Beirut on Tuesday (July 30), in retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack that killed 12 youngsters three days ago which it blamed on the Lebanese armed group.

A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above Beirut's southern suburbs - a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah — at around 7.40 pm (1640 GMT), a Reuters witness said.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the strike killed Fuad Shukr, who "has the blood of many Israelis on his hands. Tonight, we have shown that the blood of our people has a price, and that there is no place out of reach for our forces to this end."

There was no immediate response from Hezbollah. The group has denied involvement in a rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday that killed 12 youth in a football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams.

A senior security source from another country in the region confirmed Shukr had died of wounds sustained in the strike.

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