With the attack on a Golan Heights soccer field and Israel’s retaliatory strike in Beirut, cease-fire negotiations with Hamas look doomed.
Within 24 hours, Hezbollah’s most senior military commander and Hamas’ political leader were assassinated in the capitals of Lebanon and Iran, respectively. Israel took responsibility for the first strike but declined to comment on the second attack, despite accusations from Iran and Hamas.
These two deaths will likely provoke coordinated responses from militant actors and inevitably escalate war across the region.
The first of these assassinations was Hezbollah’s leader Fuad Shukur, also known as Sayyid Muhsan. He was killed on Tuesday by a strike that hit a civilian area in Beirut, Lebanon. At least three other people were killed and dozens were injured. The Israeli military announced:
Israeli Air Force fighter jets eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s most senior military commander and the head of its Strategic Unit, Fuad Shukr ‘Sayyid Muhsan,’ in the area of Beirut.
Shukur was a senior advisor to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. He was also a member of Hezbollah’s highest military body. Israel claimed he was responsible for the deaths of the 12 children killed in a rocket attack in the Golan Heights on Saturday.
