Tel Aviv (National Times) Israel believes its air strike on Beirut killed a senior commander of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Tuesday, Israel’s public broadcaster said, in retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack that killed 12 youngsters three days ago.

A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above Beirut’s southern suburbs – a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah – at around 7:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), a Reuters witness said.

Two unidentified sources told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that Israel assessed that “the target of the strike” was killed.

The Israeli military earlier said the target was the Hezbollah leader responsible for a rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday that killed 12 youth in a football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams.