Death toll rises in Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah official
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health says four people have now been confirmed killed in an Israeli assault on central Beirut’s Ras Al Naba’a district, which killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.
“The Israeli enemy strike on Ras Al Naba’a led to a final toll of four dead including a woman and 14 others wounded including two children,” a Health Ministry statement said, raising an earlier toll of one dead and three wounded.
Israel army confirms strike ‘eliminated’ Hezbollah spokesman
Israel’s army says it “eliminated” Hezbollah’s media chief Mohammed Afif in the Beirut area. In a statement, it described him as the Lebanese group’s “chief propagandist”.
The military “conducted a precise, intelligence-based strike in the area of Beirut and eliminated the terrorist Mohammed Afif”, it said, adding that Afif was “directly involved in Hezbollah’s terrorist activity against the state of Israel”.
Three others died and 14 Lebanese were wounded in the rare air strike on central Beirut’s commercial district.
Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya lawmaker denies group targeted in Beirut strike
A lawmaker from Lebanon’s al-Jamaa al-Islamiya denied a media report that said that the Islamist group aligned with Hamas and Hezbollah was the target of an Israeli strike on Beirut earlier.
Imad Hout said that “no centre or institution affiliated with the group is located in the area targeted by the strike, and no member of the group was targeted”.
An unnamed Lebanese security source said the attack hit an electronics store in the Mar Elias district, a commercial and residential area in central Beirut. At least two people were killed and 13 wounded in the strike.
A firefighter works to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut’s Mar Elias Street
‘Nowhere in the country is safe’ after central Beirut attack
We reported earlier on an Israeli air strike on Mar Elias Street that killed two people and wounded 22 others – the second such attack in central Beirut in one day. The commercial district hadn’t been targeted by Israel previously.
Lina, 59, whose home in Mar Elias is less than 500 metres (1,600 feet) from the blast site, said the air raid hit a street she uses “every day to go to work”. “It’s a residential area… Nowhere in the country is safe any more,” she said, requesting to be identified only by her first name.
The attacks happened as Lebanese officials considered a US-led ceasefire proposal. “This confirms the crimes of the Israeli enemy and that it wants to negotiate under fire and is expanding and targeting safe and safer areas,” said a Lebanese member of parliament, Faisal al-Sayegh.
