IDF targets Beirut suburb in retaliation for attack that killed 12 in the Golan Heights

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had carried out an airstrike in a suburb of southern Beirut, targeting a commander they say was in charge of an attack on Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that killed 12 young people last week.

"The IDF targeted in Beirut the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams," the IDF said in a statement Tuesday.

Reuters reported the commander Israel was targeting had survived, citing two senior security sources. NBC News was not able to confirm the report.

Militants in Lebanon and Israel have been trading fire since Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza, raising fears that the fighting will spiral into a regional conflict.

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Al Manar, a satellite television station run by Hezbollah, the group Israel blames for a strike on the town of Majdal Shams last week, reported that Israel had "launched an aerial aggression that targeted the southern suburb of Beirut."

"Local sources reported that the raid in the Haret Hreik area was carried out by a drone and 3 missiles were fired," the report added.

The television station also said that a building targeted by Israel in the Haret Hreik area, a Hezbollah stronghold, had collapsed.

Al Manar reported that two people had been killed in the strike, adding that "Ambulances have transported a number of casualties to the hospital."

Photographs from the area also showed cars crushed and covered with rubble.

Saturday's strike on Majdal Shams killed at least 12, mostly children and teenagers belonging to the minority Druze community.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack. In a series of statements issued Saturday, Hezbollah did say it had struck nearby military targets in the