- Dozens killed in surprise Gaza’s airstrikes
- Israel hit other targets in Lebanon
Hezbollah’s Chief spokesman, Mohammed Afif, has been killed by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, as Israel intensifies its air offensive in Lebanon despite ongoing indirect negotiations for a ceasefire.
Afif, who has been the public face of Hezbollah for months, was killed in a strike on offices of the Ba’ath Party in Ras al-Nabaa, central Beirut. The attack in the busy residential area came without warning and appeared to damage neighbouring buildings.
The son of a prominent Shia cleric, Afif managed the Hezbollah-run TV network Al Manar before taking over as head of the militant Islamist group’s media relations. Since the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah, on 28 September, Afif became one of the group’s most prominent officials, holding several press conferences in Beirut.
Analysts said Asif was the first official with such a role to be killed by Israel, as all previous targets had military or senior leadership posts. Until Sunday, there had been no Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut since mid-October.
Witnesses saw four bodies at the scene of the strike, which took place a day before Lebanon was expected to deliver its response to a US-delivered ceasefire proposal. There was no official word on the exact death toll.
“I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire,” said Suheil Halabi, a resident. “I was startled, honestly. This is the first time I experienced it so close.”
Late on Sunday, Lebanon’s health ministry said another Israeli strike in central Beirut killed two people and wounded 13. Firefighters were battling a blaze triggered by the strike in the commercial-residential area.
The Education Minister later announced that Beirut-area schools would close for two days. Lebanon’s army, which is not a party to the conflict, said Israel had “directly targeted” an army centre in south Lebanon on Sunday, killing two soldiers.
In Gaza, civil defence workers confirmed 34 deaths, including children, from an Israeli strike that hit a five-storey residential building in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. Dozens more were missing.
An Israeli military spokesperson said strikes were conducted on “terrorist targets”. “We emphasise that there have been continued efforts to evacuate the civilian population from the active war zone in the area, in parallel with efforts to expand the humanitarian area in al-Mawasi … The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is precisely operating and is doing everything possible to avoid causing harm to civilians,” they said.
