Hezbollah confirmed this morning (Wednesday) that the “great jihadist leader” Fouad Shukr was in the building targeted by the Israeli raid in the southern suburbs of Beirut, explaining at the same time that it is still waiting to obtain information about his fate with the “slowness” of the rubble removal operations.

“The Zionist enemy attacked the southern suburbs of Beirut, targeting a residential building,” the party said in a statement, its first comment since the Israeli strike. “The great jihadist leader, brother Sayyed Fouad Shukr (Hajj Mohsen), was in this building at the time,” it added, explaining that it was still waiting for information about his fate as the rubble removal process was “slow” “due to the condition of the destroyed floors.”

An Israeli air strike targeted a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs late Tuesday, as the Israeli military said it was responding to a cross-border rocket attack that killed 12 children and teenagers on Saturday. The militant group Hezbollah denied involvement.

“We leave it to Israel to speak about its military operations,” the White House spokesman told Reuters. “We reiterate our clear position: Our commitment to Israel’s security is unwavering against all Iranian-backed threats, including Hezbollah, and we are working to find a diplomatic solution that will allow citizens to safely return home.”

For his part, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on X: “The criminal act that took place tonight is a link in a chain of aggressive operations that are killing civilians, in clear and explicit violation of international law... We place it before the international community, which must assume its responsibilities and exert all possible pressure to compel Israel to stop its aggression and threats and implement international resolutions.”

“We didn’t expect them to bomb Beirut, but they did,” Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told Reuters, expressing hope that Hezbollah’s response would not lead to an escalation. “We hope that any response will be proportionate ... so that this wave of killing, beating and bombing stops,” he said.

In turn, the Palestinian Hamas movement condemned in a statement the Israeli strike on the southern suburb of Beirut, adding: “We strongly condemn the brutal Zionist aggression against Lebanon and the brotherly Lebanese people, which targeted a Hezbollah headquarters in the southern suburb of Beirut, and resulted in the martyrdom and injury of a number of innocent citizens. We consider it a dangerous escalation for which the Nazi Zionist occupation bears full responsibility.”

The Yemeni Houthi movement condemned the strike via Al Masirah TV, saying: “We condemn and denounce in the strongest terms the Zionist aggression on the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut, in a terrorist attack that targeted civilians and civilian facilities, with premeditation and deliberation, in violation of all international conventions, and in flagrant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and international humanitarian law,” according to Reuters news agency.

The Iranian embassy in Lebanon wrote on Twitter: “We condemn in the strongest terms the sinful and cowardly Israeli aggression that targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, which claimed the lives of a number of martyrs and wounded.”

In Syria, the Foreign Ministry expressed through the official news agency: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Syrian Arab Republic condemns this blatant attack on Lebanese sovereignty and flagrant violation of international law, which occurred two days after the heinous crime that took place in the city of Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.”

In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry considered the Israeli strike on Beirut a “flagrant violation of international law.”