The Israeli army has claimed to have killed in the bombing in Beirut of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr“the highest-ranking military leader” of the Lebanese Shiite group and close adviser to the organization’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. However, the Shiite group confirmed on Wednesday that its commander was in the bombed building, but is still unable to provide information on his whereabouts while search efforts are still underway in the area.

“At that time, the jihadist Big Brother Fuad Shukr (‘Hajj Mohsen’) was in this building,” the armed group acknowledged in its first statement on the subject since the attack on the outskirts of the capital, Dahye, one of its main strongholds in Lebanon.

“In a targeted assassination operation, fighter jets attacked Beirut, killing Fuad Shukr ‘Sayyid Muhsan’, the highest-ranking military commander of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and responsible for the organization’s strategic training,” the Israeli army said in a statement on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, “Civil Protection teams have been working diligently but slowly since the incident occurred to remove the debris (…) We are still awaiting the outcome of this operation regarding the fate of the great and beloved leader, and other citizens,” Hezbollah added.

The Jewish State holds him responsible for the attack that killed twelve children on Saturday at a football field in the Golan Heights, under Israeli occupation, and had already been warning for days that it would respond harshly to this launch of a projectile, which Hezbollah disengages.

Three dead, two of them children

According to the latest official count, Tuesday’s bombing in Dahye caused at least three dead, two of them children, and injured another 74 people, most of whom have already been discharged from the different hospitals where they were admitted.

This is the first attack targeting Hezbollah in the capital’s suburbs since the start of hostilities between the sides 20 years ago. almost ten months, although last January the area had already been the target of another bombing that killed the number two of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Saleh al Arouri.

If his death is confirmed, Shukr would be the Third senior Hezbollah commander killed at the hands of Israel in just over six weeks and its highest-ranking casualty since crossfire broke out in the border areas last October.