Hezbollah announced late last Wednesday that Hassan Nasrallah’s Chief of Staff Fuad Shukr’s remains were discovered in the debris of a structure struck on Tuesday in the Shiite neighborhood of Beirut, Dahye. The attack claimed five lives in total. Israeli military officials had stated earlier that Shukr had been the intended target of a “precision intelligence operation.”
The Israelis described the strike as retaliation for a rocket assault the previous Saturday on a soccer field in the Israeli town of Majdal Shams in the Golan, which resulted in 12 killed children. The Israelis asserted that Shukr played a major role in orchestrating the attack. Both Israel and the US attributed the attack to Hezbollah.
????? BREAKING: A large explosion in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahye, as a result of an Israeli strike.
The IDF says it carried out a targeted assassination of the Hezbollah commander ‘responsible for the attack on Majd al-Shams’ in Beirut. pic.twitter.com/nwJXuplWsh
— Critical Content News (@CriticalCN) July 30, 2024
Shukr began his murderous career in 1983 when he masterminded blowing up a Beirut barracks, killing 241 American and 58 French military personnel.
Hezbollah and its supporters have criticized Amos Hochstein, the US mediator working on an agreement between the Lebanese group and Israel. They’ve accused him and US officials of involvement in Shukr’s killing.
Al Akhbar, a pro-Hezbollah newspaper in Beirut, claimed this week that Hochstein misled Lebanese officials about Israel’s intentions. The paper stated that Hochstein had suggested Israel wouldn’t attack Beirut or its southern areas. However, on Tuesday, Israel killed Fuad Shukr in an airstrike within the Hezbollah-controlled Dahye neighborhood.
The newspaper advised Lebanese officials to cease contact with Hochstein, describing him as “a partner in the largest deception campaign that effectively contributed to the enemy’s strike” on Beirut.
According to Al Akhbar, Hochstein had sought assurances that Hezbollah wouldn’t retaliate against Israel’s response to the Majdal Shams attack. The paper reported that Hochstein “informed officials that the Israeli strike would be outside Beirut and its suburbs.” It suggested that Lebanese officials should view Hochstein as “a full partner in the crime.”
On the day of Shukr’s funeral, Al Akhbar’s front page quoted the diplomat as telling Lebanese officials, “Targeting the airport, the suburbs or Beirut is a red line.”
A Lebanese official involved in discussions between foreign diplomats and Hezbollah contradicted these claims in a statement to The Financial Times. According to this official, the US had not provided Lebanon with any assurances about Israel’s potential targets, nor had any such guarantees been passed on to Hezbollah.
Another source familiar with the negotiations expressed skepticism about the idea that Hochstein would have directly promised Lebanon that Israel would refrain from striking Beirut.
Nevertheless, two diplomats working in the Middle East informed the FT that there was a “general understanding” that the southern suburbs of Beirut would be exempt from the reciprocal attacks that have characterized the ongoing tension between Israel and Hezbollah.
