A rare Israeli airstrike on central Beirut killed Hezbollah’s chief spokesman, an official with the militant group said.
Earlier, officials said Israeli strikes killed at least 12 people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with the Palestinian Hamas for over a year.
The latest in targeted killings of senior Hezbollah officials came as Lebanese officials considered a US-led cease-fire proposal. Israel also bombed several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has long been headquartered, after warning people to evacuate.
READ MORE: Israel’s war conduct in Gaza ‘consistent with the characteristics of genocide’ UN Special Committee finds
Mohammed Afif, the head of media relations for Hezbollah, was killed on Sunday (Monday AEDT) in a strike on the Arab socialist Baath party’s office in central Beirut, according to a Hezbollah official who was not authorised to brief reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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. Last month, Afif hastily wrapped up a press conference in Beirut ahead of Israeli strikes.
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. People could be seen fleeing. There was no comment from the Israeli military.
“I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire,” said Suheil Halabi, a witness. “I was startled, honestly. This is the first time I experience it so close.”
The last Israeli strike in central Beirut was on October 10, when 22 people were killed in two locations.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel the day after Hamas’ October 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 October 1.