BEIRUT (AP) – An unusual Israeli airstrike on central Beirut killed Hezbollah’s chief spokesman on Sunday, the extremist group said. Earlier, officials said at least 12 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with Palestinian Hamas for more than a year.
The latest targeted killings of senior Hezbollah officials come as Lebanese authorities consider a US-led ceasefire proposal. Israel also bombed several buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah had been based for years, after warning people to evacuate.
Hezbollah media chief Mohamed Afif staged a strike at the Arab socialist Ba’ath Party office in central Beirut, according to a Hezbollah official who was not authorized to brief reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity. was killed in
Afif’s presence became particularly visible after all-out war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in September, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Last month, Afif hurriedly cut short a press conference in Beirut ahead of the Israeli attack.
Screams erupt in central Beirut
There was no Israeli evacuation warning before the strike near a busy intersection in central Beirut. An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw four bodies and four injured, but there was no official number of casualties. I could see people running away. The Israeli military could not be reached for comment.
“I was asleep, but I woke up to the sounds of strikes, people screaming, cars and gunfire,” said Suhail Halabi, a witness. This is my first time experiencing it so close. ”
The last Israeli attack in central Beirut was on October 10, killing 22 people in two locations.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles, and drones at Israel the day after the Gaza war broke out with a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes in Lebanon, and the conflict steadily escalated, culminating in war in September. Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on October 1st.
Hezbollah fires dozens of projectiles into Israel every day and has expanded its range into central Israel. The attack killed at least 76 people, including 31 soldiers, and displaced about 60,000 people. A barrage of rocket fire damaged a synagogue and injured two civilians in the northern city of Haifa on Saturday.
More than 3,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Lebanon, according to the Ministry of Health. It is unclear how many of the dead were Hezbollah fighters.
The Lebanese army, largely on the sidelines, said an Israeli attack on Sunday hit a military center in southeastern al-Marri, killing two soldiers and wounding two others. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli side.
12 killed in night attack in central Gaza
Israeli airstrikes killed six people in Nuseyrat and four in Breiji, two refugee camps built in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 war over the creation of Israel.
Two people were killed in the attack on Gaza’s north-south highway, according to the 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 stormed into Israel on October 7 last year, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, and about one-third are thought to have died.
The Gaza Health Ministry said about 43,800 Palestinians had died in the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the dead are women and children.
About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have fled, and Israeli artillery and ground operations have flattened large swaths of the territory.
Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine whether Israel’s attacks in Gaza amount to genocide, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book released Sunday.
Three arrested after firing flare at Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home
Israeli police have arrested three suspects after two smoke bombs were fired overnight at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the coastal city of Caesarea.
Officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family were not at the scene. Drones launched by Hezbollah struck the compound last month, also when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family were away.
Police did not provide details about the suspect, but officials said he was a domestic political critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Almost ceremonially, Israeli President Isaac Herzog warned against “escalation of violence in public spaces.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu has faced months of mass protests. Critics have accused him of security and intelligence failures that led to the October 7 attack and of failing to reach an agreement with Hamas to free the hostages.
Israeli minister aims to revive judicial reform
Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin used the shooting to call for the revival of a plan to reform the judicial system that sparked months of mass protests before the war.
“The time has come to provide full support for the restoration of our justice and law enforcement systems and to put an end to the anarchy, rampage, denial and attempts to harm the Prime Minister,” he said in a statement. .
Advocates say judicial reform is aimed at strengthening democracy by limiting the power of unelected judges and delegating more power to elected officials. said. Opponents see the review as a power grab by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption and assaulting a key watchdog.
Many Israelis believe that internal divisions caused by attempts at reform weakened the country before the Hamas attack.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said on the X program that he strongly condemned Levin’s firing of flares while slamming his proposal.
“We will not allow him to turn Israel into an undemocratic state,” Lapid wrote.
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Meltzer reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Wafa Shurafa in Gaza Strip and Kareem Chehaib in Beirut contributed.
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For more of AP’s war coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
