An Israeli strike has 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed Hezbollah’s main spokesman as well as three others in an attack on a building in Beirut.

Hajj Mohammed Afif al-Nabulsi, Hezbollah’s head of media relations, was 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed alongside three other people in an Israeli strike on the Arab socialist Baath party’s office in Beirut on Sunday.

Afif had been especially visible after all-out war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah in September.

Hezbollah confirmed his death in a statement, referring to him as ‘a great martyr on the road to Jerusalem’, the expression used for its members 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed by Israel.

Israel’s army also published a statement, saying it had ‘eliminated’ Afif in the Beirut area, who it described as the Iran-backed militant group’s ‘chief propagandist’.

The army ‘conducted a precise, intelligence-based strike in the area of Beirut and eliminated the terrorist Mohammed Afif’, it said, adding Afif was ‘directly involved in Hezbollah’s terrorist activity against the State of Israel’.

It added that Afif ‘wielded significant influence over Hezbollah’s military operations’ and ‘glorified and incited’ attacks on Israel.

It was the latest targeted 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ing of senior Hezbollah officials.

On Sunday night, another strike in central Beirut hit a computer shop on Mar Elias Street, 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ing two people and wounding 22, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The strikes happened as Lebanese officials considered a United States-led cease-fire 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.

Israel also bombed several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has long been headquartered, after warning people to evacuate.

There was no Israeli evacuation warning before the strike near a busy intersection that 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed Afif.

Afif and three other people were 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed and 14 wounded including two 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, the Health Ministry said.

‘I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire,’ said witness Suheil Halabi.

After the second strike in central Beirut, firefighters struggled to control the blaze in the busy residential neighborhood of Mar Elias. Bystanders said they heard a second explosion and a car nearby appeared to be hit.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel the day after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack ignited the war in Gaza.

Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes in Lebanon and the conflict steadily escalated.

Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on October 1. On Sunday, Israel’s military said mobile artillery batteries had crossed into Lebanon and began attacking Hezbollah targets, the first time artillery was launched within Lebanese territory.

More than 3,400 people have been 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry, and over 1.2 million driven from their homes. It is not known how many of the dead are Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah has fired dozens of projectiles into Israel daily. The attacks have 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed at least 76 people, including 31 soldiers, and caused some 60,000 people to flee.

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said a teenager suffered blast injuries Sunday in Upper Galilee.

Lebanon’s army, largely on the sidelines, said an Israeli strike on Sunday hit a military center in southeastern Al-Mari, 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ing two soldiers and wounding two others. There was no immediate Israeli comment.