MOHAMMED Afif, the spokesperson for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut on Sunday.
Afif, who had been an adviser to the late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for years and had been in charge of the party’s media relations since 2014, died, the militant group acknowledged in a statement, calling him a “great media leader.”
During the strike, Afif was at the pro-Hezbollah Baath Party offices.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, no evacuation notice was sent prior to the strike, which occurred in the middle of the day in Ras al-Nabaa. Four persons were killed. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they carried out a “precise, intelligence-based strike” that “eliminated the terrorist Mohammed Afif, the chief propagandist and spokesperson of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas paid tribute to Afif, sending condolences to his family and Hezbollah leadership, describing him as “a strong and defiant voice of resistance.”
Another strike targeted a building in Mar Elias, a highly populated Sunni suburb in central Beirut, killing at least two people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
With Sunday’s bombings, five strikes have occurred within Beirut’s city limits since 2006, when Israel and Hezbollah engaged in a 34-day military confrontation.
Afif was one of Hezbollah’s few public faces after a huge Israeli infiltration effort forced the group underground.
He frequently delivered comments from press conferences amid the ruins in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been bombarded with attacks since Israel launched a new offensive on October 1.
According to one reliable source, engaged with the negotiations, Hezbollah is presently studying a US-Israeli cease-fire agreement that was delivered to the Lebanese government, Thursday. It is unknown how Afif’s reported killing will affect the negotiations.
Israel’s attack on Afif emerges as its offensive in Lebanon continues to escalate. Last Monday, Israel’s military minister, Israel Katz, announced an escalation of the ground operation in southern Lebanon.
On Sunday, Israel stated that it was using artillery batteries inside Lebanese territory for the first time. Previously, batteries stayed on Israeli territory, firing into towns across the border.
Artillery batteries continue to bombard from inside Lebanon, “attacking targets in support of ground forces during their operations,” according to Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, on Sunday.
Adraee stated that the goal is to “expand the scope of the shelling” and “direct heavy fire towards” conflict zones to help ground operations.#
