Gaza live: Israel strike kills 30 Palestinians, mostly children

At least one person was killed and 68 others wounded, including five who are in critical condition, in Israel’s strike on a senior Hezbollah commander in a southern Beirut suburb, Lebanon’s public health ministry said.

Hezbollah is also making its first statements on the strike.

“The Israeli enemy has committed a great stupid act in size, timing and circumstances by targeting an entirely civilian area,” Hezbollah official Ali Ammar told Al-Manar TV. “The Israeli enemy will pay a price for this sooner or later.”

Lebanon’s prime minister has slammed Israel for its "blatant aggression" following its strike on a southern Beirut suburb.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati “condemned the blatant Israeli aggression on the southern suburbs of Beirut” in a statement.

He said Israel’s strike was a “criminal act” in a “series of aggressive operations killing civilians in clear and explicit violation of international law”.

Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah military commander, has been killed in an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to Al Arabiya.

The report conflicts with previous reporting from Reuters and Al Jazeera, that Shukr survived the Israeli strike.

Shukr’s death could put pressure on Hezbollah to respond more forcefully to the Israeli strike. 

MEE could not immediately independently verify the casualties from the strike.

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Tuesday that he hopes Hezbollah’s response to an Israeli strike on a southern Beirut suburb that is its stronghold would not lead to a full-scale war.

He said he hopes for a “proportionate response”. Lebanon’s government has no control over Hezbollah’s fighters.

Bou Habib said Lebanon condemned the Israeli strike and planned to file a complaint to the United Nations.

Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee, “doesn’t like Jewish people”, her Republican challenger Donald Trump said in an interview.

“You can see the disdain,” Trump told WABC radio, “Number 1, she doesn’t like Israel. Number 2, she doesn’t like Jewish people. You know it, I know it and everybody knows it and nobody wants to say it". 

Harris is married to a Jewish man, who Trump agreed was a “crappy Jew” in his interview.

Iran has slammed Israel’s “sinful and cowardly” attack on a suburb south of Beirut.

Iran’s embassy in Lebanon issued the statement following an Israeli strike that targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in a southern Beirut suburb controlled by Hezbollah.

The Biden administration has informed Hezbollah through Lebanese mediators that Israel plans to conduct “big strikes” in the east and south of Lebanon in retaliation for an attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but will stop well short of a major offensive. 

A senior Arab official briefed on the matter told Middle East Eye that the warnings have been delivered to avert a “full-fledged” war with Lebanon, potentially so Hezbollah could move senior commanders out of the area. 

The US push to avert a war comes as Israel claimed responsibility for a strike on a suburb south of Beirut, that it said targeted a senior Hezbollah commander. 

“The Biden administration is piling pressure and certainly trying to choreograph this," Firas Maksad, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute think tank, told MEE. 

Read More: US warns Hezbollah about 'big strikes' in east and south, but no wider offensive

Senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr who was the alleged target of an Israeli strike on Beirut has survived, according to Reuters.

At least one woman and several people have been wounded by Israel’s strike on Dahiyeh, according to Lebanese state media.

Russia has condemned Israel’s strikes on Lebanon after Israel’s military claimed responsibility for bombing a suburb south of Beirut.

Moscow said Israel’s strikes were a “flagrant violation of international law”, according to Tass news.

The status of a Hezbollah commander targeted by Israel remains unknown.

An Al Jazeera correspondent said that it appeared a drone was responsible for the attack that targeted Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah military commander, in a suburb south of Beirut. 

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that two floors of the al-Rabi building in Dahiyeh suburb had collapsed. 

Reuters reports that it is unclear whether Shukr has been killed.

The Israeli strike on Beirut targeted senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, in a major escalation of the war, according to media reports. 

Shukr, also known as Hajj Mohsin, is a senior advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Israel claims Shukr is commander of Hezbollah’s precision missile project.

He is also wanted by the US for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut.

Israel has claimed responsibility for a strike on a Beirut suburb, saying that it targeted a Hezbollah commander responsible for a deadly hit on the occupied Golan Heights “and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians”.

“At the moment, there are no changes in the Home Front Command defensive guidelines,” the military said.

Video posted on social media showed smoke billowing from the Dahiyeh suburb

A senior Hezbollah commander was the target of an Israeli strike on the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, according to Reuters.

Video posted on social media showed smoke billowing from the Dahiyeh suburb.

Al Jadeed News reported that Israeli aircraft launched a raid on the southern suburb.

A large explosion ripped through a southern suburb in Beirut that is considered a stronghold of Hezbollah, in a potential escalation of the fighting between the Iran-backed group and Israel. 

Video posted on social media showed smoke billowing from Dahiyeh suburb.

Al Jadeed News reported that Israeli aircraft launched a raid on the southern suburb.

Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance gathered in a show of solidarity on Tuesday for the swearing in ceremony of President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran.

In addition to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials, Iran hosted Naim Qassem the deputy leader of Hezbollah, and Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the spokesman for Yemen's Houthis.

Pezeshkian’s swearing in ceremony comes at a time of rising tensions, with Israel threatening a “severe” response to a missile strike on the occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teenagers it blamed on Hezbollah.