BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah confirmed on Sunday that its head of media relations Mohammad Afif was killed in an Israeli strike on a building in central Beirut.

Israel has rarely struck senior Hezbollah personnel who do not have clear military roles, and its airstrikes have mainly targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the group has its strongest presence.

The Israeli military, which earlier declined to comment, issued a statement late Sunday saying it had “eliminated” Afif. Lebanon’s health ministry said the strike killed one and injured three.

A second, separate strike later on Sunday hit Mar Elias Street, another central area rarely targeted by Israeli bombs, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV channel reported. Lebanon’s health ministry said the strike killed at least two people and injured 22.

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

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

Israel’s campaign in Lebanon has killed 3,841 people and wounded nearly 15,000 over the past year, Lebanon’s health ministry said Sunday, a tally that does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

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

A separate attack on the Gaza Strip in Israel’s war against Hamas killed more than 43,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health officials.

LEBANESE SOLDIERS DEAD

In addition to targeting Hezbollah, the escalation has killed several Lebanese army soldiers, including two who died on Sunday when Israel attacked an army post in the southern city of Al-Mari, the Lebanese army told X.

Two other soldiers were reportedly injured.

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

Lebanese security sources said a building housing the Ba’ath Party offices was hit, and the party’s head in Lebanon, Ali Hijazi, told Lebanese station Al-Jadeed that Afif was in the building.

Ambulances were heard rushing to the scene and guns were fired to prevent the crowds from approaching.

The Lebanese broadcaster showed video of a building whose upper floors had collapsed and civil defense workers at the scene.

Afif was a long-time media adviser to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on September 27.

He ran Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station for several years before taking over the group’s media office.

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

(Reporting by the Beirut bureau; Additional reporting by Menna Alaa El Din and Emily Rose; Editing by John Davison, Kevin Liffey, Andrew Cawthorne and Cynthia Osterman)