An Israeli strike on a building in central Beirut on Sunday killed Hezbollah’s media relations chief Mohammad Afif, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters, though there was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.
Israel has rarely hit senior Hezbollah personnel who do not have clear military roles, and its air strikes have mostly targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs where Hezbollah has its
heaviest presence.
The Israeli military declined to comment in response to questions from Reuters. An Israeli military spokesperson’s account on the social media platform X that often publishes evacuation orders for areas about to be bombed showed no such warning before this strike.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire for more than a year, since the Iran-backed group began launching rockets at Israeli military targets on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas carried out a deadly attack on southern Israel.
In late September, Israel dramatically expanded its military campaign in Lebanon, heavily bombing the south and east and the southern suburbs of Beirut alongside ground incursions along the border.
In addition to targeting Hezbollah, the escalation has killed several soldiers of the Lebanese military, including two who died on Sunday 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.
Meanwhile in northern Gaza, dozens of Palestinians were reported killed in an Israeli air strike on a multi-storey residential building. Hamas claimed 72 people were killed but there was no independent confirmation of that figure. Other reports said six families lived in that building.
The Israeli military said strikes were conducted on terrorist targets and a spokesman said: “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 in Al-Mawasi.”
He claimed the Israeli military was doing everything to avoid civilian casualties.
With Reuters inputs
