BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah’s media relations chief Mohammad Afif was killed in an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut’s Ganjanabad district on Sunday, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters, although Hezbollah immediately claimed responsibility. No confirmation.
The Israeli military declined to comment in response to questions from Reuters. There was no evacuation order for the area, as posted on the Israeli army spokesman’s account on social media platform X before the strike.
The attack targeted the neighborhood of Ras al-Naba, where many people displaced from the southern suburbs of Beirut by Israeli bombardment were seeking refuge.
Security sources said it targeted a building where the Baath Party’s offices are located, and the party’s head in Lebanon, Ali Hijazi, told Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed that Afif was in the building.
The broadcaster later also said that Afif had been killed. It showed footage of a building whose top floor had collapsed onto the first floor, with civil defense workers at the scene.
Afif was a longtime media adviser to former Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern outskirts of Beirut on September 27.
He managed Hezbollah’s al-Manar television station for several years before taking over the media relations office of the Iran-backed group.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire for more than a year, since Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israeli military targets on October 8, 2023, a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel. What was a deadly attack.
In late September, Israel dramatically increased and expanded its military campaign in Lebanon, carrying out heavy bombardments along with ground incursions along the border in the country’s south, east, and southern suburbs of Beirut.
Afif hosted several press conferences for journalists amid the rubble on the southern outskirts of the capital. In his latest comments to reporters on November 11, he said that Israeli forces had failed to capture any territory in Lebanon and that Hezbollah had enough weapons and equipment to fight a “long war”.
Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed and three others wounded in the attack.
Ambulances could be heard rushing to the scene, and gunshots could be heard to keep the crowd from reaching the scene.
