Hizbollah confirmed its media relations chief Mohammad Afif was killed by an Israeli strike on a building in central Beirut yesterday.
Israel has rarely hit senior Hizbollah personnel who do not have clear military roles, and its air strikes have mostly targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs where the group has its heaviest presence.
Israel’s military, which earlier declined to comment, issued a statement later in the day reporting it had ‘eliminated’ Afif. The Lebanese health ministry said the strike had killed one and injured three.
A second, separate strike later yesterday hit Mar Elias street, another central area rarely targeted by Israeli bombs, Hizbollah’s Al Manar TV reported. The Lebanese health ministry said that strike killed at least two people and wounded 22.
In late September, Israel expanded its military campaign in Lebanon, heavily bombing the south and east and the southern suburbs of Beirut alongside ground incursions on the border.
Israel’s campaign in Lebanon has in the last year killed 3,841 people and wounded nearly 15,000 others, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Hizbollah rockets fired across the border have killed dozens of Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, Israel says.
A separate assault on the Gaza Strip in Israel’s war against Hamas has killed more than 43,000 people, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian health officials.
The Israeli military yesterday said that an officer and a soldier from the Nachshon Regiment (90), Kfir Brigade, had been killed during combat in northern Gaza on Saturday.
In addition to targeting Hizbollah, the escalation has killed several soldiers of the Lebanese military, including two who died yesterday when Israel attacked an army post in the southern town of Al Mari, the Lebanese army said on X.
Two other soldiers were wounded, it said.
The strike in Beirut targeting the Hizbollah official hit the Ras Al Nabaa neighbourhood, where many people displaced from the southern suburbs by Israeli bombardment have sought refuge.
The Lebanese security sources said a building housing offices of the Ba’ath Party had been hit, and the head of the party in Lebanon, Ali Hijazi, told the Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadeed that Afif had been in the building.
Ambulances could be heard rushing to the scene, and guns were fired to prevent crowds approaching.
The Lebanese broadcaster showed video of a building whose upper floors had collapsed and civil defence workers at the scene.
Afif was a long-time media adviser to Hizbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air attack on September 27.
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