Israeli bombardment on central Beirut kills Hezbollah head of media

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah confirmed its media relations chief Mohammad Afif was killed during Sunday's strike by Israel on a building in central Beirut.

Israel has rarely hit senior Hezbollah personnel who do not have clear military roles, and its airstrikes have mostly targeted Beirut's southern suburbs where the group has its heaviest presence. 

Israel's military issued a statement late on Sunday reporting it had "eliminated" Afif. The Lebanese health ministry said the strike had killed one and injured three.

In the wake of Sunday's strikes, Lebanon's Education Minister Abbas Halabi said schools and higher education institutions in the Beirut area would remain closed for two days.

Israel's military said it struck "over 200 targets" in Lebanon over the weekend. Israeli strikes in Lebanon's southern Tire region killed 11 people and wounded 48 on Sunday, the local health ministry said.

Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire for more than a year, since the group began launching rockets at Israeli military targets on October 8, 2023. That was a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, Israeli authorities say.

In late September, Israel expanded its military campaign in Lebanon, heavily bombing the south and east and the southern suburbs of Beirut alongside ground incursions on the border.

Israel's campaign in Lebanon has in the last year killed 3,841 people and wounded nearly 15,000 others, according to the Lebanese health ministry, a toll that did not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel says Hezbollah rockets fired across the border have killed dozens of Israelis, including soldiers and civilians.

A separate assault on the Gaza Strip in Israel's war against Hamas has killed more than 43,000 people, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian health officials.

Sunday's strike in Beirut targeted the Hezbollah official hit the Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood, where many people displaced from the southern suburbs by Israeli bombardment have sought refuge.

The Lebanese security sources said a building housing offices of the Ba'ath Party had been hit, and the head of the party in Lebanon, Ali Hijazi, told the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed that Afif had been in the building.

Afif was a long-time media adviser to Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut on September 27.

He managed Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station for several years before taking over the group's media office.

Afif hosted several press conferences for journalists among rubble in Beirut's southern suburbs. In his most recent comments to reporters on November 11, he said Israeli troops had been unable to hold any territory in Lebanon, and that Hezbollah had enough weapons and supplies to fight a long war.