Israel says it has killed a top Hezbollah commander in a strike in the Lebanese capital city Beirut.
At least one person was killed and a number of others wounded in the explosion in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a stronghold.
Israel says Fuad Shukr was the target of an “intelligence-based elimination” by fighter jets the Beirut area.
They claim Shukr was responsible for the strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday which killed 12 people, mostly children. Hezbollah has denied any involvement for that attack.
In a brief post on social media after the attack, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said: “Hezbollah crossed the red line”.
Meanwhile Lebanon’s prime minister – Najib Mikati – has criticised, what he calls, “blatant Israeli aggression”, and the country’s foreign minister, said the government plan to complain to the United Nations.
Israel says the Hezbollah commander it targeted in Dahiyeh, a suburb in the capital Beirut, was Fuad Shukr.
It’s not yet clear if Shukr was killed in the attack, but the BBC’s Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville said security sources in Beirut believe he was not in the building at the time.
Both Reuters and AFP news agencies are quoting sources who have said he survived the attack.
Fuad Shukr is a believed to be a senior advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the US has previously said.
It has been offering a $5m (3.9m) reward for information about him, alleging he played a “central role” in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut, that killed 241 US military personnel.
An Israeli reaction had been widely expected after the deadly attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, and Israel’s security cabinet had authorised Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant to decide how to retaliate.
At least 12 people were killed – mostly children – when a rocket hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams on Saturday.
Israel has blamed Hezbollah, but the group denies any involvement.
It was the deadliest incident near the Israel-Lebanon border since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in October.
That escalation came after Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October.
Hezbollah – which supports Hamas – opened up a limited second front in Israel’s north, and the two sides have been exchanging fire ever since.
In recent days, world leaders have urged for restraint and warned against the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalating further, amid fears of an all-out war developing.
Earlier on Tuesday UK foreign secretary David Lammy told UK nationals living in Lebanon to leave immediately or risk “becoming trapped in a warzone”.
But speaking in the moments after Tuesday’s strike, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that US President Joe Biden believes an all-out war “can be avoided”.
“We have to continue to be optimistic here, I think it’s important to have a diplomatic solution. We do not want to see an escalation, we do not want to see an all-out war,” she said.
Earlier in the day, two unnamed Israeli officials told Reuters news agency that while Israel sought to hurt Hezbollah, it did not want to drag Lebanon into all-out war.