New details about the IDF’s attempted assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Ali Karaki on Monday were revealed on Tuesday.

According to Hezbollah, the attempt failed and Karaki has been transferred to a safe place. However, Army Radio reported that Israeli security officials are confident that Karaki was in the building that was attacked and was likely even injured during the strike.

Unlike the IDF’s assassination of Hezbollah’s second-in-command Ibrahim Akil in an airstrike in Beirut on Friday, the airstrike targeted only one of the upper floors of the building, where it was believed Akil was located. Fighter jets dropped three to four relatively small munitions that hit that specific floor without collapsing the entire building.

The report also noted that the decision was made to avoid causing a complete collapse of the building out of fear that nearby buildings might also fall. Friday’s strike on Akil caused a nearby building to fall due to damage to its foundations and the IDF decided that Monday’s strike would be carried out more cautiously.

According to a security source, the building where Akil was located in Dahieh was largely cleared of civilians who had evacuated the area. This means that even if they had collapsed the entire building, it would not have resulted in mass civilian casualties.

On Tuesday morning, Religious Zionism MK Tzvi Sukkos slammed the fact that the elimination failed due to the IDF’s fear of causing collateral damage.

He wrote: “The fact that Ali Karaki wasn’t eliminated because they were afraid of collateral damage is nothing short of madness. Those who show mercy to the enemy are directly harming the citizens of Israel.”

“I submitted an urgent inquiry to the Defense Minister this morning to find out what the policy is on this and who is responsible for this terrible decision.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)