Mohammad Afif, presented by Israel as “the head of propaganda” of Hezbollah, was killed Sunday by a strike that hit the heart of Beirut. Three other people died in the bombing, while a shopping district in the Lebanese capital was also the target of an Israeli strike.
In the Tire region, in the south of the country, eleven people were killed and 48 injured by Israeli attacks.
We take stock of recent developments in the conflict.
At least six people were killed on Sunday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, in two Israeli strikes in the center of Beirut, where Hezbollah media chief Mohammad Afif died.
A first bombing killed Mohammad Afif in Ras el-Nabaa in the heart of the capital during the day on Sunday, a security source told AFP, with Hezbollah then announcing his death in “a criminal Zionist (Israeli, editor’s note) strike.”
This strike has “lead four dead, including a woman, and 14 injured, including two children”, indicated the ministry in an upwardly revised assessment.
A member of Hezbollah since the early 1980s, Afif was part of Hassan Nasrallah’s inner circle. The Israeli army confirmed on Sunday that it had “eliminated” Mohammad Afif, presented as the “head of propaganda” of the pro-Iranian movement.
A second Israeli bombing took place Sunday evening on the Mar Elias shopping district, leaving two dead and 13 injured, according to the Ministry of Health. It hit an electronics store and a car, a security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP. AFP journalists heard two violent explosions.
Many people who fled the bombings of Israel, at war against the Lebanese Islamist movement, in the south of the country had found refuge in recent weeks in this district.
An MP from the Lebanese Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya, Imad Hout, denied that one of the centers of the allied group of Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas was hit or was the target of the Israeli strike.
11 dead in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon
Eleven people were killed on Sunday and 48 others injured in Israeli strikes targeting towns in the Tire region, in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah is strongly established, the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced.
“Israeli enemy raids on villages in the Tire district left 11 dead and 48 injured,” the ministry said.
Schools in Beirut and surrounding areas closed Monday and Tuesday
Schools in Beirut and its surroundings will be closed Monday and Tuesday, the Lebanese Ministry of Education announced Sunday evening, after two Israeli strikes which targeted the heart of the capital a few hours apart.
“The Minister of Education, Abbas Halabi announced the closure of public and private schools and private higher education institutions that provide face-to-face classes,” according to a press release from the ministry, specifying that the measure will be applied Monday and Tuesday in establishments in Beirut, certain sectors of Chouf, Metn-north, and in Baabda and Aley.
