BEIRUT — A rare Israeli strike in central Beirut killed the chief spokesman for the Hezbollah militant group on Sunday, while an Israeli strike in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya killed at least 30 people, the director of a hospital there told The Associated Press.
Mohammed Afif, the head of media relations for Hezbollah, was killed in a strike on the Arab socialist Baath party’s office, according to a Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was the latest in a series of targeted killings of senior Hezbollah officials. Later Sunday, another strike in central Beirut hit a computer shop, killing two people and wounding 13, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
The strikes occurred as Lebanese officials considered a U.S.-led cease-fire proposal. Israel on Sunday also bombed several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has long been headquartered, after warning people to evacuate.
Afif had been especially visible after all-out war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah in September and the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike.
No warning given
There was no Israeli evacuation warning before the strike near a busy intersection in central Beirut. An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw four bodies and four wounded people, but there was no official word on the toll.
“I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire,” witness Suheil Halabi said. “I was startled, honestly. This is the first time I experience it so close.”
After the strike on Sunday night, firefighters struggled to control the blaze in the busy residential neighborhood of Mar Elias. Small explosions could be heard in the shop. Bystanders said they heard a second explosion during the strike and a car nearby appeared to be hit.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in Gaza. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes in Lebanon, and the conflict steadily escalated, erupting into war in September. Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on Oct. 1.
