Israel targeted a senior Hezbollah leader in Beirut on Tuesday in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights over the weekend.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, “on the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians”.

The target was identified as Fuad Shukr, a senior adviser to Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was said to control the Lebanese terror group’s military activities and precision weapons programme.

Shukr is wanted in the US for his role in the 1983 bombing of the Beirut Marine Corps barracks, which killed 241 Americans.

Footage showed widespread destruction to buildings and cars in the Dahieh neighbourhood of Beirut, which is known as a Hezbollah stronghold.

There were conflicting reports on Tuesday night on whether Shukr had survived the strike.

A senior Israeli official told The Telegraph that the army did not know if Shukr had been eliminated, adding that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to act “very precisely and surgically” with as few collateral casualties as possible.

“Therefore, the IDF used small munitions, even though the military made it clear to Netanyahu that this would reduce the chances of success.

“Netanyahu preferred to lower the chances of the elimination’s success to avoid a powerful strike that could lead to war.”

Hundreds of people gathered on the street following the strike, chanting slogans in support of Nasrallah and calling for retaliation.

One woman was killed and a least 35 people were injured, Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, told the New York Times.

The US government’s Rewards for Justice programme has previously offered up to $5m (£3.9m) for information leading to Shukr’s capture and in 2015 put him under US sanctions.

The 61 year-old is from the village of al-Nabi Shayth, in the Baalbek district of Lebanon, also the birthplace of Hezbollah co-founder Abbas al-Musawi.

Shukr serves on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s highest military body, and has allegedly been involved in assisting Hezbollah fighters and pro-Assad forces in the Syrian civil war.

The strike hit near Hezbollah’s Shura Council, the group’s central decision-making authority.

Hezbollah-affiliated media Al Mayadeen reported that a four-floor residential building had “completely collapsed” and that the Bahman Hospital was partially damaged too.

The attack came after Mr Netanyahu vowed a “severe response” to the Golan Heights attack.

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said Hezbollah “crossed a red line” shortly after the attack was confirmed by the IDF.

Israel warned the US ahead of the strike, CNN reported citing a source familiar with the matter.

Shortly after the attack, US deputy state department spokesman Vedant Patel said that Washington was still “continuing to work toward a diplomatic resolution that would allow Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes and live in peace and security. 

“We certainly want to avoid any kind of escalation.”

The Iranian Embassy, in Lebanon, said it condemned in the “strongest terms the cowardly and sinful Israeli aggression that targeted the southern suburb of Beirut, which claimed the lives of a number of martyrs and wounded.”

Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, told Reuters that the country plans on filing a complaint with the United Nations over the Israeli attack.

Lebanon is hoping that Hezbollah’s response will be proportionate “so that this wave of killing will stop” he added.

Both Israel and Lebanon have been on high alert since Saturday’s attack on the Golan Heights.

Hezbollah fired 10 rockets at northern Israel on Tuesday, killing an Israeli man in his 30s in Kibbutz HaGoshrim in the Upper Galilee.

Israel has struck several Hezbollah targets throughout southern Lebanon since Saturday, killing four members of the Lebanese group.

The attack on a Hezbollah official in Beirut on Tuesday marks an escalation, but it is not the first time Israel has attacked the Lebanese capital since Hamas’ massacre of Oct 7.

In January, an Israeli airstrike killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh Aurori, also in the Dahieh neighbourhood.

Aurori, who at the time was the most senior Hamas official to be killed since Oct 7, played an instrumental role in coordinating terror activities in the West Bank.