The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah confirmed that Israel killed a top commander after a rare strike in Beirut.
ADVERTISEMENTMembers of Lebanon's government have condemned the IDF strike on Beirut on Tuesday.
Ziad Makari, Lebanon's minister of information, said that the bombing was "an attack on initiatives of goodwill, pacification efforts towards calm, and understanding".
Israel said the strike killed Fuad Shukr, who was behind a rocket attack that killed 12 young people in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights over the weekend. Hezbollah has issued a rare denial of involvement in the attack.
The Iran-backed group confirmed the death of Shukr on Wednesday. The announcement came after an overnight strike in Tehran that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Hamas and Iran blamed on Israel.
The strike in Beirut hit a block of flats in the neighbourhood of Haret Hreik. At least three people were killed and 74 injured in the incident, according to the Lebanese authorities.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the strike was carried out with a drone that launched three rockets.
Haret Hreik is a crowded urban neighbourhood full of small shops and apartment buildings, where Hezbollah is said to conduct political and security operations.
Abbas Alaa Eddine, a local resident, said, "I live in the building behind this one. At around 7:45 or 7:40 (pm local time), a strike came, not from a plane. It was a rocket from a drone."
"As you can see, this is an area filled with residents. This is a cowardly act, an act of wretchedness and vileness," he added.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza but have previously kept the conflict at a low level that was unlikely to escalate into full-on war.
The office of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately release a statement, but minutes after the strike, sent a photo of Netanyahu with his national security adviser and other officials.
The Israeli drone strike on Beirut is the second one this year after an airstrike by Israel killed top Hamas official Saleh Arouri in January.
That attack was the first time Israel hit Beirut since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement that she was “deeply concerned” by the strike and called for “calm to prevail”.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Kamala Harris said Israel “has the right to defend itself against the (Hezbollah) terrorist organization”.
ADVERTISEMENT“We still must work on a diplomatic solution to end these attacks, and we will continue to do that work,” Harris added.