An Israeli airstrike on central Beirut killed Mohammad Afif, the head of Lebanese political and militia movement Hezbollah’s media office, on Sunday, Lebanese media including the Al Jadeed broadcaster and the National News Agency reported.
Earlier in the day, eyewitnesses told Sputnik that Israeli jets attacked a building in the center of the Lebanese capital.
The strike that killed Afif reportedly targeted the regional office of the Arab Socialist Baath Party - the ruling party in neighboring Syria.
"Afif did not fight with weapons and did not lead a military unit in Hezbollah. Rather, he led a media unit," Baath Party - Lebanon Region Secretary-General Ali Hijazi said, confirming that the Hezbollah representative was killed while holding a meeting in the party's Beirut HQ.
Hezbollah has yet to confirm Afif's death. He is known to have been previously been targeted in a separate attack on Hezbollah's media relations in October.
Lebanon's Hezbollah-allied al-Mayadeen television network reported that five people had been killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut.
Last month, Afif confirmed Hezbollah's responsibility for an October 22 attack targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying "if our hands did not reach you the previous time, then days, nights and the battlefield remain between us." Netanyahu reportedly wasn't present at the compound at the time of the attack.
Sunday's strike signals the latest escalation of the year+ long Middle East crisis triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 hit-and-run incursion into southern Israel, which kicked of a series of regional conflicts, from a ground invasion of Gaza and a Yemeni Houthi missile, drone and maritime blockade campaign, to fighting between IDF and Hezbollah forces along the border between Israel and Lebanon, to Iraqi militia drone attacks targeting Israel, Israeli airstrikes into Syria, the assassination of militia leaders, and back-and-forth missile, drone and air attacks between Israel and Iran.