The Israel Defense Forces confirmed late Tuesday night that a targeted strike in Lebanon earlier that day led to the death of Hezbollah’s top military commander. 

Israeli Air Force fighter jets launched a strike on Fuad Shukr in Beirut after the Iranian-backed terrorist group killed 12 Children in a rocket attack in northern Israel last weekend. 

The IDF said that Shukr was Hezbollah’s “most senior military commander and the head of its Strategic Unit” and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s “right-hand man” and was his “adviser for planning and directing wartime operations.”

Since the onset of the unprecedented October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, Shukr had guided all of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel. Thousands of terrorists infiltrated Israel from Gaza, murdering 1,200 Israelis, wounding over 5,000, and taking 326 hostages. 

“As the Head of Hezbollah’s Strategic Unit, Fuad was responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs,” the statement said. “He was responsible for force build-up, planning, and execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel.”

Shukr had been a member of Hezbollah for almost 40 years and played a major role in several major attacks since the early 1990s. 

“In the 1990s, Fuad advanced numerous attacks against the IDF and the South Lebanon Army,” the statement said. “In 2000, he was directly involved in the abduction of the bodies of three IDF soldiers – SSGT Benyamin Avraham, SSGT Adi Avitan, and SSGT Omar Sawaid -who were killed by Hezbollah terrorists while patrolling the security fence adjacent to Har Dov. Since then, he has planned and directed numerous terror attacks against innocent civilians.”

The U.S. government had put a $5 million bounty on Shukr’s head for his central role in the October 23, 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. military personnel and injured 128 more.