Israeli Strike Kills Hezbollah Spokesperson

The spokesperson of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Mohammed Afif, was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut on Sunday.

The death of Afif, who was for years an adviser to the late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and had been responsible for the group’s media relations since 2014, was confirmed by the militant group in a statement calling him a “great media leader.”

Afif was at the headquarters of the pro-Hezbollah Baath Party at the time of the strike.

No evacuation warning was issued before the strike, which hit an area known as Ras al-Nabaa in the middle of the day, killing four people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it carried out a “precise, intelligence-based strike” that “eliminated the terrorist Mohammed Afif, the chief propagandist and spokesperson of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”

Among those paying tribute to Afif was the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which sent its condolences to Afif’s family and Hezbollah leadership, calling him “a strong and defiant voice of resistance.”

On Sunday evening, another strike hit a building in Mar Elias, a densely populated Sunni-majority neighbourhood near central Beirut, killing at least two people according to the Lebanese health ministry. Reports said.

With Sunday’s attacks, five strikes have hit inside Beirut’s city limits since 2006, when a 34-day armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah took place.

Afif was one of the few public faces of Hezbollah, following a massive Israeli infiltration operation drove the group deep underground.

He often delivered speeches from news conferences amid the rubble in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which have been pounded by attacks since Israel began a new offensive on October 1.

CNN/Shakirat Sadiq