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Israel‘s airstrike on Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, a few weeks ago that killed Hezbollah’s military commander Fuad Shukr, occurred shortly after he received a phone call instructing him to move from his second-floor office to his seventh-floor residence, where he was more vulnerable to attack, Wall Street Journal reported, quoting a Hezbollah official.
As per the WSJ report, the Hezbollah official informed that the group, in collaboration with Iran, was investigating the security breach and suspected that Israel’s advanced technology had outmatched their countersurveillance measures.
According to the Journal, Shukr resided and worked in the same building to minimize his time outdoors. He had been in hiding since his involvement in the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 from Athens to the United States.
“We’d heard his name, but we never saw him,” a neighbour was quoted as saying by the paper. “He was like a ghost.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike on July 30 claimed the lives of Shukr, his wife, two other women, and two children. The attack was in retaliation for a deadly Hezbollah rocket attack on the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams, which killed 12 children and teenagers.
Hours after Shukr’s death, an explosion in Tehran killed Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. Both Hezbollah and Iran have pledged to seek revenge against Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the blast that killed Haniyeh.
Shukr played a key role in commanding a cross-border assault in 2006 that resulted in the deaths of eight Israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of two others, triggering a war in Lebanon. Following the conflict, Shukr is believed to have planned the expansion of the terror group’s rocket arsenal from approximately 15,000 to around 150,000, establishing it as the most well-armed nonstate actor in the region.
According to the IDF, he was Hezbollah’s key figure in smuggling Iranian components through Syria that could transform unguided missiles into guided ones.
When Hezbollah was officially established in 1985, Shukr was appointed as its military commander. He was considered a close friend of Hassan Nasrallah, who became the terror group’s leader after Israel assassinated his predecessor in 1992.
As per the WSJ report, the Hezbollah official informed that the group, in collaboration with Iran, was investigating the security breach and suspected that Israel’s advanced technology had outmatched their countersurveillance measures.
According to the Journal, Shukr resided and worked in the same building to minimize his time outdoors. He had been in hiding since his involvement in the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 from Athens to the United States.
“We’d heard his name, but we never saw him,” a neighbour was quoted as saying by the paper. “He was like a ghost.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike on July 30 claimed the lives of Shukr, his wife, two other women, and two children. The attack was in retaliation for a deadly Hezbollah rocket attack on the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams, which killed 12 children and teenagers.
Hours after Shukr’s death, an explosion in Tehran killed Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. Both Hezbollah and Iran have pledged to seek revenge against Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the blast that killed Haniyeh.
Shukr played a key role in commanding a cross-border assault in 2006 that resulted in the deaths of eight Israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of two others, triggering a war in Lebanon. Following the conflict, Shukr is believed to have planned the expansion of the terror group’s rocket arsenal from approximately 15,000 to around 150,000, establishing it as the most well-armed nonstate actor in the region.
According to the IDF, he was Hezbollah’s key figure in smuggling Iranian components through Syria that could transform unguided missiles into guided ones.
When Hezbollah was officially established in 1985, Shukr was appointed as its military commander. He was considered a close friend of Hassan Nasrallah, who became the terror group’s leader after Israel assassinated his predecessor in 1992.
