Israeli strike on Beirut kills Hezbollah media chief Mohammed Afif
Hezbollah’s chief spokesperson has been killed by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, as Israel intensifies its air offensive in Lebanon despite ongoing indirect negotiations for a ceasefire.
Mohammed Afif, who has been the public face of Hezbollah for months, was killed in a strike on offices of the Ba’ath party in Ras al-Nabaa, central Beirut. The attack in the busy residential area came without warning, and appeared to damage to neighbouring buildings.
The son of a prominent Shia cleric, Afif managed the Hezbollah-run TV network Al Manar before taking over as head of the militant Islamist group’s media relations. Since the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah, on 28 September, Afif became one of the group’s most prominent officials, holding several press conferences in Beirut.
Analysts said Afif was the first official with such a role to be killed by Israel, as all previous targets had military or senior leadership posts. Until Sunday, there had been no Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut since mid-October.
Witnesses saw four bodies at the scene of the strike, which came a day before Lebanon was expected to deliver its response to a US-delivered ceasefire proposal. There was no official word on the exact death toll.
That concludes the Middle East crisis liveblog for today. Thanks for following along.
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Israeli attacks killed 29 people and wounded 122 on Saturday, bringing the tolls since October last year to 3,481 fatalities and 14,786 injuries, the Lebanese health ministry reported on Sunday.
Pope Francis has suggested the global community should study whether Israel’s military campaign in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people, in some of his most explicit criticism yet of Israel’s conduct in its year-long war.
In excerpts published on Sunday from a forthcoming book, the pontiff said some international experts say that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide”.
“We should investigate carefully to assess whether this fits into the technical definition (of genocide) formulated by international jurists and organisations,” the pope said in the excerpts, published by Italian daily La Stampa.
Last December South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for allegedly violating the Genocide Convention. In January the judges at the court ordered Israel to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts. The court has not yet ruled on the core of the case – whether genocide has occurred in Gaza.
Israeli military reports officer and soldier killed in battle in northern Gaza
The Israeli military said on Sunday that an officer and a soldier from the Nachshon Regiment (90), Kfir Brigade, had been killed during combat in northern Gaza yesterday.
The army identified them as Captain Yogev Pazy, aged 22 from Giv’ot Bar, a platoon commander, and Staff Sergeant Noam Eitan, aged 21, from Hadera, Reuters reported.
Another soldier was severely wounded in the same battle, the army added.
Summary
As the time approaches 6pm in Jerusalem, here is the news from the conflict in the Middle East.
The main spokesperson for Hezbollah, Mohammed Afif has been killed in the first Israeli airstrike on central Beirut for more than a month.
The headquarters of the Syrian Social Nationalist party was hit by an attack, which was confirmed as killing Afif by Ali Hijazi, secretary-general of the Lebanese branch of the Ba’ath party.
Afif had been the public face of Hezbollah, appearing for the party at a press conference after the killing of leader Hassan Nasrallah in September.
Three people were also injured in the airstrike.
Meanwhile the Israeli army said it had attacked militant targets near Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, where 30 people have been killed.
Two Lebanese soldiers have been killed after the Israeli army reportedly attacked an outpost in the south of the country.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said on Sunday that a peacekeeping patrol was shot at “about 40 times” a day earlier, with the culprit “likely from non-state actor members”.
The Guardian’s international security correspondent Jason Burke has written this guide to the Hezbollah and Hamas leaders killed by Israel since the 7 October attack last year.
It includes Hassan Nasrallah, Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah founding member Faud Shukr, but was written before Mohammed Afif and Hashem Safieddine’s deaths.
A second Lebanese soldier has been killed after Israel allegedly targeted their position in southern Lebanon.
Earlier the Lebanese Army announced that one soldier had been killed, with three injured – including one critically (see 14:29).
“The Israeli enemy directly targeted an army centre” in Mari in the Hasbaya area, causing “the death of one of the soldiers and the wounding of three others, one of whom is in critical condition”, the army said in a statement.
A separate statement shortly afterwards said “a second soldier” had died of his wounds.
Israeli fire has killed more than a dozen Lebanese soldiers since all-out war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group erupted in September, according to an AFP tally of official announcements.
Dutch police said it is investigating 45 people for violent crimes after unrest associated with a European football fixture in Amsterdam last week.
Police said nine of them have been identified and arrested, according to AFP.
“Because of the seriousness of the crimes, but also because of the social impact, we immediately scaled up to a special investigation team,” Dutch police chief Janny Knol said in a statement.
Police are “looking at all crimes committed in the run-up to the game and in its aftermath”, Knol said after violence in the Dutch capital on 7 November shook the country, resulting in several protests and a near-government collapse.
The number of suspects is expected to increase “based in part on the analysis of a large amount of footage”, police added.
Tensions were high before last week’s football match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local Ajax team after Israeli fans chanted anti-Arab slogans, vandalised a taxi and burnt a Palestinian flag in Amsterdam’s main square, according to police reports.
Following the match, Israeli fans were targeted in “hit-and-run” attacks by men on scooters. Police said the attackers were spurred by calls on social media to attack Jews.
The Israeli army said it had attacked militant targets near Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, where 30 people have been killed.
“There have been ongoing terrorist activities in the area of Beit Lahia... Overnight, several strikes were conducted” on militant targets in the area, the Israeli military said in a statement to AFP.
Gaza’s civil defence confirmed 30 deaths from a previous figure of 26 for the strike that it said hit a residential building early Sunday.
A Lebanese soldier has been killed, with three wounded after Israel attacked an army post in a Lebanese town.
The Lebanese Army posted on X that one of those injured was in a critical condition after the attack on Sunday.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon says a patrol was fired upon earlier on Sunday.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said on Sunday that a peacekeeping patrol was shot at “about 40 times” a day earlier, with the culprit “likely from non-state actor members”.
“A group of individuals”, at least one armed, sought to prevent the patrol from passing in south Lebanon on Saturday, but it continued and was later “fired upon about 40 times from behind, likely from non-state actor members”, UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that no peacekeepers were injured though “some patrol vehicles had bullet impacts”.
AFP reports that Afif had been prominent within Hezbollah for almost 20 years:
Afif joined Hezbollah at a young age and first came to prominence as information director for Hezbollah’s television channel Al-Manar when the group and Israel went to war in 2006.
After Nasrallah’s assassination, Afif had held several press conferences in Beirut’s southern suburbs, including one last month in which he announced Hezbollah had launched a drone targeting the residence of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
That press conference was cut short when the Israeli army warned it would strike a building nearby.
“Bombardments have not scared us, so how would threats?” Afif said defiantly as journalists hurriedly collected their microphones from the table.
Hezbollah officials killed in previous Israeli strikes include not only Nasrallah but also Hashem Safieddine, tipped as the former chief’s successor.
The airstrikes in Gaza on Sunday came amid Israeli offensives in Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya.
The tight siege of the three towns and a series of evacuation orders has raised widespread concerns that Israel intends to force civilian populations to leave the northernmost parts of Gaza and will not permit their return.
“Over the last weeks, conversations in Gaza have been intense about the so-called ‘Generals’ Plan’ … within the Israeli forces … which consists of wiping Palestinians off the northern part of Gaza by either killing them, forcing them out, or starving to death those who stay,” Médecins Sans Frontières said on Friday.
“The way the ongoing offensive in the north is being waged … reinforces the idea that we are witnessing the execution of this plan,” the NGO added.
Israel denies any such intention and says the offensives, launched last month, are an effort to prevent Hamas from regrouping in areas that have been cleared in previous multiple rounds of combat.
Here are some images from the scene in Beirut, where an Israeli strike is believed to have killed Hezbollah spokesperson Mohammed Afif:
Updated
Sunday’s strike by Israel killed one person – reported to be Hezbollah spokesperson Mohammed Afif – and injured three, according to the Lebanon health ministry.
AFP cited the official National News Agency as reporting that the strike by “enemy aircraft” caused “great destruction”, with an unspecified number of people “trapped under the rubble” in Ras al-Nabaa.
The NNA said “one of the residents of a neighbouring building had received a warning call urging evacuation but it was not taken seriously”.
Ali Hijazi, secretary-general of the Lebanese branch of the Ba’ath party, has “confirmed the death of Hezbollah media official” Mohammed Afif, reports AFP, citing the official National News Agency.
Israel has yet to comment on the reported death of Afif.
Afif had been the public face of Hezbollah in several press conferences after Israel’s assassination of leader Hassan Nasrallah in September this year.
He is pictured here at a press conference in Beirut earlier this week:
Israeli strike in northern Gaza reportedly kills dozens of Palestinians
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed or injured by an Israeli strike on a multistorey residential building in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, local medics and officials in the territory have said.
The government media office in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, put the number of those killed at 72. It said the strike on Sunday morning hit a residential building that housed six families.
There was no independent confirmation of the reports or the reported death toll, which followed intensive Israeli bombardment of targets across Gaza in recent days. Israeli officials have previously accused authorities in Gaza of systematically exaggerating reports of casualties from strikes in the territory.
Updated
William Christou reports for the Guardian from Beirut on the strike by Israeli forces on a building in Ras al-Nabaa, central Beirut, on Sunday afternoon, the first strike on central Beirut in over a month:
The attack on the busy residential neighbourhood came without warning, and appeared to cause damage to neighbouring buildings.
The strike comes as Israel intensifies its airstrikes across Lebanon as Lebanese officials prepare to give their response to an Israeli ceasefire proposal on Monday. The Israeli military issued a series of evacuation warnings on Saturday and Sunday for Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut, striking over a dozen targets in bombings heard across the capital city.
Israeli soldiers continue to advance on the ground in south Lebanon, with Israeli soldiers reaching the village of Chamaa – about three miles from the Lebanese-Israel border. Hezbollah stepped up its attacks in northern Israel in tandem, announcing the targeting of five military targets in Haifa on Saturday night.
Lebanese officials noted positive steps in the ceasefire negotiations, though they said that an Israeli request for a western-led mediation body in Lebanon was a stumbling block. Israeli demands reportedly involve pushing Hezbollah past the Litani river, some 18 miles from the border.
The Israeli military intensification is reportedly meant to put pressure on Lebanese negotiators, who accused their Israeli counterparts of conducting negotiations “under fire”.
Note, this post has been updated to reflect new information about which building was hit by the strike.
Updated
Hezbollah spokesperson killed in Israeli strike
The first Israeli airstrike on central Beirut in over a month has killed Mohammed Afif, the main spokesperson for Hezbollah, an official from the group has confirmed to the Guardian and Associated Press.
AP reports:
Afif had been especially visible after Israel’s military escalation in September and following the assassination of longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was also killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Israeli warplanes had earlier pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut after the military warned people to evacuate from several buildings. The Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence in the area, known as the Dahiyeh, and the strikes came as Lebanese officials are considering a U.S.-brokered cease-fire proposal.
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