Israeli strike on Beirut building kills Hezbollah spokesman

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Mohammad Afif was a long-time media advisor to Hezbollah’s former secretary general Hassan Nasrallah.

A Hezbollah official says an Israeli strike in central Beirut has killed the group’s main spokesman, Mohammad Afif.

The strike on a building in a densely populated district of the Lebanese capital on Sunday also injured three others, officials said. There was no evacuation order for the area published on the Israeli military spokesperson’s account on social media platform X before the strike.

The strike hit the Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood where many people displaced from Beirut’s southern suburbs by the Israeli bombardment had been seeking refuge.

Afif was Hezbollah’s top media relations officer, and the point of contact for the organisation known among many journalists in Beirut. He managed Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station for several years before taking over the Iran-backed group’s media relations office.

“Clearly, this is a continuation of the Israeli policy to go after not only the military wing of Hezbollah but also officials within the administrative side of the organisation”, said Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari. “What Israel is trying to is diminish the groups’ capabilities on all fronts: Economic, social, political, military,” she added.

This is a developing story.

Source

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Al Jazeera and news agencies