Hezbollah Leader Fuad Shukr Lured to Residence Before Israeli Airstrike: Report
Hezbollah’s deputy leader Fuad Shukr was killed in a July 30 Israeli airstrike in Beirut after a call lured him from his office to his seventh-floor residence, making him an easier target, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. A Hezbollah official revealed that the Iran-backed group was investigating the security breach, suspecting Israel used advanced technology to outmaneuver their countersurveillance system. Shukr had been living and working in the same building to minimize exposure.
Shukr was a central figure in Hezbollah’s military operations for decades. He helped plan the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and was involved in the 1982 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 American servicemen. He also commanded a 2006 cross-border attack that killed eight Israeli soldiers and triggered the Second Lebanon War. In addition, Shukr was instrumental in expanding Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal to 150,000 missiles, the largest of any nonstate actor in the region.
The strike, which also killed Shukr’s wife, two women, and two children, was a response to a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children in Israel’s Majdal Shams. Hours after Shukr’s death, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran. Hezbollah and Iran have vowed revenge on Israel, though Israel has not confirmed its involvement in Haniyeh’s death.
The Wall Street Journal noted that Shukr lived such a secretive life that Lebanese media mistakenly published photos of the wrong person following his death.
