Faud Shukr, the elusive military commander of Hezbollah, met his demise in an Israeli airstrike last month. The strike, which occurred on July 30, claimed the lives of Shukr, his wife, and several others, including two women and two children. A recent report by the Wall Street Journal sheds light on the events leading up to Shukr’s death, revealing a phone call received moments before the strike that led him to shift from his office on the second floor of his building to the more vulnerable seventh floor, his residence. Shukr had been in hiding for years, evading capture since his involvement in the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847. His ability to remain hidden was such that even his neighbors were quoted as saying they had never seen him, describing him as “like a ghost.”
The report further suggests that both Hezbollah and Iran are investigating the security breach that allowed Israeli forces to pinpoint Shukr’s location. Some speculate that Israel’s advanced technological capabilities outmatched Iran’s countersurveillance efforts.
Shukr’s death comes after a lifetime of involvement in numerous attacks across the world. He was a key figure in the cross-border raid that killed eight Israeli soldiers in 2006, igniting the Second Lebanon War. He is also credited with significantly expanding Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal from 15,000 to 150,000. Furthermore, Shukr was wanted in the United States for his role in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut, an attack that claimed the lives of 241 American servicemen.
After Hezbollah’s formal establishment in 1985, Shukr assumed the role of military commander, rarely appearing in public. Only this year, he made a brief public appearance at the funeral of his nephew, who had died in a confrontation with Israel. Shukr’s life and death serve as a reminder of the complex and often dangerous world of international conflict, particularly in the Middle East.
