The main spokesperson for Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on central Beirut on Sunday, an official with the militant group said.
The Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, told The Associated Press that Mohammed Afif was killed in a strike on the party’s offices Arab socialist Baath.
FADEL ITANI/AFP via Getty Images
Afif, who was in charge of Hezbollah’s media relations, was particularly visible after the Israeli military escalation in September and after the assassination of longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Last month, Afif hurriedly concluded a press conference in Beirut before the Israeli strikes.
Israeli warplanes pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday after the army warned the population to evacuate several buildings.
The Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence in the area, known as Dahiyeh, and the strikes came as Lebanese officials are considering a proposed ceasefire brokered by the United States.
An Associated Press photographer at the scene of Sunday’s strike saw four bodies and four injured, but there was no official statement on the death toll. People could be seen fleeing the neighborhood. There was no comment from the Israeli military.
“I was sleeping and woke up to the sound of the strike, people screaming, cars and gunshots,” said Suheil Halabi, a witness to the strike. “Honestly, I was surprised. This is the first time I’ve seen it up close.
Bilal Hussein / AP
The last Israeli strike in central Beirut took place on October 10, when 22 people were killed in strikes on two sites.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel the day after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes in Lebanon and the conflict continued to escalate, culminating in all-out war in September. Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on October 1.
Nighttime strikes in central Gaza kill 12
Israeli strikes hit two refugee camps built in central Gaza dating from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, killing six people in Nuseirat and four others in Bureij.
Two more people were killed in a strike on Gaza’s main north-south highway, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah, which received the 12 bodies.
The war between Israel and Hamas began after Palestinian militants breaks into Israel on October 7 last year, killing around 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping around 250 others. Around a hundred hostages are still in Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images
Gaza’s health ministry says around 43,800 Palestinians were killed during the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but has said women and children account for more than half of the deaths.
Also on Sunday, Israeli police announced they had arrested three suspects after flares were fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the coastal city of Caesarea.
Netanyahu and his family were not present at the residence when two flares were fired overnight, and there were no injuries, authorities said. A drone launched by Hezbollah hit the residence last montheven when Netanyahu and his family were away.
Police did not provide details about the suspects behind the flares, but officials pointed the finger at domestic political criticism of Netanyahu. Israel’s largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzogcondemned the incident and warned of “an escalation of violence in the public sphere”.