BEIRUT — A rare Israeli air strike on central Beirut killed Hezbollah’s spokesman on Sunday, a militant group official said. Earlier, Israeli strikes killed at least 12 people in the Gaza Strip, officials said, where Israel has been at war with Palestinian Hamas for more than a year.

The latest in a series of targeted assassinations of senior Hezbollah officials came as Lebanese officials considered a proposed cease-fire led by the United States. Israel also bombed several buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has long been based, after warning people to evacuate.

Mohammed Afif, head of media relations for Hezbollah, was killed in a strike on the office of the Arab Socialist Baath Party in central Beirut, according to a Hezbollah official who was not authorized to speak to reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Afif remained particularly visible after the outbreak of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah in September and the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was also targeted by an Israeli airstrike. Last month, Afif hurriedly wrapped up a press conference in Beirut ahead of the Israeli attacks.

A rare hit in downtown Beirut

An Associated Press photographer at the scene of Sunday’s strike saw four lifeless bodies and four injured people, but there was no official word on the toll. People could be seen fleeing the neighborhood. There was no comment from the Israeli military.

“I was asleep and I woke up to the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire,” said Suheil Halabi, who witnessed the strike. “I was surprised, honestly. It’s the first time I’ve experienced it this close.”

The latest Israeli attack in central Beirut took place on October 10, when 22 people were killed in strikes at two locations.

Hezbollah began firing missiles, rockets and drones into Israel the day after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack triggered the Gaza war. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes in Lebanon, and the conflict steadily escalated, erupting into full-scale war in September. Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on 1 October.

Hezbollah continued to fire dozens of projectiles into Israel every day and extended its range into the central part of the country. A rocket barrage in the northern city of Haifa damaged a synagogue and injured two civilians on Saturday.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, and more than 1.2 million have been driven from their homes. It is not known how many of the dead are Hezbollah fighters.

On the Israeli side, Hezbollah airstrikes have killed at least 76 people, including 31 soldiers, and caused an estimated 60,000 people to flee northern communities.

Overnight strikes in central Gaza killed 12 people

Israeli strikes killed six people in Nuseirat and another four in Bureij, two refugee camps built in central Gaza that date back to the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.

Two other people were killed in a strike on Gaza’s main north-south highway, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, which received all 12 bodies.

The war between Israel and Hamas began after Palestinian militants entered Israel on October 7 last year, killing around 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping around 250 others. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead.

Gaza’s health ministry says around 43,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but said women and children accounted for more than half of the deaths.

About 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians has been displaced, and large areas of the territory have been flattened by Israeli bombardment and ground operations.

Israeli police arrested three people after they stormed Netanyahu’s home

Meanwhile, Israeli police arrested three suspects after shots were fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the coastal city of Caesarea.

Netanyahu and his family were not at the residence when two flares were fired at it overnight and were not injured, authorities said. A drone launched by Hezbollah struck the residence last month, also while Netanyahu and his family were away.

Police did not provide details on the suspects behind the fires, but officials pointed to critics of Netanyahu’s domestic policies. Israel’s largely ceremonial President Isaac Herzog condemned the incident and warned against “an escalation of violence in the public sphere”.

Netanyahu has faced months of mass protests. Critics blame him for security and intelligence failures that allowed the Oct. 7 attack and for failing to reach an agreement with Hamas to release dozens of hostages still held in Gaza. Israelis gathered again in the city of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to demand a cease-fire agreement to return them.

Israeli minister aims to revive polarizing judicial review

Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin used the attack on Netanyahu’s home to call for a renewal of his plans to overhaul Israel’s judicial system, which had sparked months of mass protests before the war.

“The time has come to give full support to the restoration of the justice and law enforcement systems and to put an end to the anarchy, anger, denial and attempts to harm the Prime Minister,” he said in a statement.

Supporters have said the changes to the judiciary aim to strengthen democracy by circumscribing the authority of unelected judges and handing more power to elected officials. Opponents see the overhaul as a power grab for Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges and an attack on a key security body.

Many Israelis believe bitter internal divisions caused by the revision attempt weakened the country and its military before the Hamas attack.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on X that he “strongly condemns” the firing of rockets into Netanyahu’s home while blasting Levin’s proposal.

“Levin should go home with the rest of this irresponsible government,” Lapid wrote. “We will not let him turn Israel into an undemocratic state.”

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Melzer reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporters Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed.