Mohammad Afif was a long-time media advisor to Hezbollah’s former secretary general Hassan Nasrallah
Published: Sun 17 Nov 2024, 4:56 PM
The head of Hezbollah’s media office, Mohammad Afif. Reuters File Photo
An Israeli strike on a building in a densely populated district of Beirut on Sunday killed Hezbollah’s media relations chief Mohammad Afif, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters, though there was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.
The Israeli military declined to comment in response to questions from Reuters. 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.
The security sources said it struck a building where the offices of the Ba’ath Party are located, and the head of the party in Lebanon, Ali Hijazi, told Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed that Afif was in the building.
The broadcaster later also said Afif had been killed. It showed footage of a building whose upper floors had collapsed onto the first storey, with civil defence workers at the scene.
Afif was a long-time media advisor to Hezbollah’s former 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 Iran-backed group’s media relations office.
Afif hosted several press conferences for journalists amid the rubble in the southern suburbs of the capital. In his most recent comments to reporters on November 11, he said Israeli troops had been unable to occupy any territory in Lebanon and Hezbollah had enough weapons and supplies to fight a “long war”.
The Lebanese health ministry said the strike killed one and injured three.
Ambulances could be heard rushing to the scene, and bursts of gunfire rang out to prevent crowds of people from approaching the location.
Sign Up For Breaking News Alerts
Be in the know. Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
