Israeli forces conducted a targeted strike in central Beirut that killed Mohammed Afif without issuing a prior evacuation order.
A Hezbollah official confirmed to the Associated Press that Hezbollah spokesperson Mohammed Afif died in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not yet commented on the incident.
On Sunday, Israeli aircraft attacked central Beirut, resulting in multiple casualties at a Syrian Ba’ath Party office. An IDF official told AP that Afif was among those killed.
The strike occurred near a busy intersection, and an AP reporter on the scene counted at least four bodies.
The IDF did not respond to media inquiries and, unlike in some previous strikes on densely populated areas, did not issue an evacuation warning before the attack.
Afif served for years as head of Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station before becoming the group’s spokesperson. He held regular press conferences in the ruins of Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood following the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September and claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence the following month.
Afif is the latest in a series of high-ranking Hezbollah officials killed by Israel since the IDF began strikes in mid-September. Following the IDF ground incursion into southern Lebanon in early October, Afif stated last week that Hezbollah was prepared for a protracted conflict with Israel.
The IDF has acknowledged the deaths of nearly 50 soldiers in the ground operation, while Hezbollah asserts that the actual number is significantly higher.
Lebanon’s health ministry reports over 3,400 deaths since the airstrikes began in September; this figure does not distinguish between civilian and Hezbollah casualties.
Earlier on Sunday, Israel launched separate airstrikes in Dahiyeh. Unlike the attack in central Beirut, the IDF issued an evacuation order prior to striking Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold. The IDF claims to have targeted at least 50 Hezbollah sites in the area over the past week.