Shukr killing spurs Hezbollah to arrest suspected informants

Hezbollah is cleaning house after the July 30 assassination of Fuad Shukr in Beirut, making a series of internal arrests of terrorist operatives it suspects may have passed information on to Israel about the movements of its No. 2 man.

Israel targeted Shukr following the July 27 massacre of 12 Druze children in the Golan Heights village of Majdal Shams when a Hezbollah rocket slammed into a soccer field.

The arrests included high-ranking officials, among them a senior member of Hezbollah’s security apparatus who was responsible for keeping Shukr’s movements secrets. He was placed under house arrest, according to Shi’ite sources.

The investigation is led by the head of Hezbollah’s Liaison and Coordination Unit, Wafiq Safa, described as one of Nasrallah’s close associates.

Shukr reportedly returned to the office, where he was killed, after a visit to a nearby mosque. He had been waiting to coordinate a meeting with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.

The investigation is also reviewing the details of the Jan. 2 assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, reasonable for Hezbollah’s terrorist operations in Judea and Samaria, who was similarly hit by a missile while in an office in the southern Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut.

Al-Arouri was one of the top Hamas leaders on Israel’s target list following the group’s mass murder of Oct. 7.

On Saturday morning, another senior Hezbollah operative was killed by an Israeli drone strike in Southern Lebanon as he was traveling in a vehicle.

Ali Nazih Abed Ali was a “significant terrorist” who planned and carried out various terrorist activities, according to the Israeli military.

Ali’s death “represents a significant blow to the capabilities of the Southern Front and to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the area,” the IDF said.