Hezbollah Spokesperson Killed in Israeli Strike on Beirut
Mohammed Afif, the spokesperson for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Sunday, CNN reports.
The strike, which targeted the headquarters of the pro-Hezbollah Baath Party in the Ras al-Nabaa area, also resulted in the deaths of three other people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Hezbollah confirmed Afif’s death in a statement, praising him as a “great media leader.” Afif, a long-time advisor to the late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, had served as the group’s spokesperson since 2014. He was one of the few public faces of Hezbollah, maintaining a prominent role even as the group largely operated underground following a significant Israeli infiltration operation. He often gave press conferences amidst the rubble in southern Beirut, a region heavily targeted since the beginning of Israel’s offensive on October 1st.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed responsibility for the strike, describing it as a “precise, intelligence-based strike” that “eliminated the terrorist Mohammed Afif, the chief propagandist and spokesperson of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.” No evacuation warning was issued prior to the strike.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas issued a statement expressing condolences to Afif’s family and Hezbollah leadership, referring to him as “a strong and defiant voice of resistance.”
Later on Sunday, another Israeli strike hit a building in the densely populated Sunni-majority neighborhood of Mar Elias, near central Beirut, killing at least two people, according to the Lebanese health ministry. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on this second strike.
Sunday’s attacks bring the total number of Israeli strikes within Beirut’s city limits to five since the 2006 Lebanon War.
The targeting of Afif comes amidst an escalation of Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced an expansion of ground operations in southern Lebanon. On Sunday, Israel confirmed the deployment of artillery batteries inside Lebanese territory for the first time, expanding the range and intensity of their shelling in support of ground forces. Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, stated that the aim is to “expand the scope of the shelling” and “direct heavy fire towards” combat areas.
Hezbollah is currently reviewing a US-Israeli ceasefire proposal submitted to the Lebanese government earlier this week.
