'A moral blow': IAF strike kills Hezbollah media chief Mohammad Afif in Beirut - sources

An Israel Air Force strike on a building in central Beirut on Sunday killed Hezbollah's media relations chief Mohammad Afif, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters on Sunday.

Hezbollah later confirmed Afif's death.

Army Radio reported that the strike targeted Hassan Nasrallah's home in Beirut's Dahiyeh neighborhood.

A failed assassination attempt was carried out on this house in 2006. Since then, the house has been rebuilt and has been used for Hezbollah terror infrastructure, according to Army Radio.

Evacuation warning

Before the strike, IDF Arab Media Spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on X/Twitter a map of targets in southern Beirut that Israel was preparing to target.

#عاجل إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في المناطق التالية: حارة حريكبرج البراجنة⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني… pic.twitter.com/RIhvTHUdMR

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 17, 2024

The spokesperson's post explicitly pertained to the Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh areas and warned local residents to immediately evacuate at least 500 meters from the buildings in question.

According to Reuters, the Israeli strike hit the Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood of Beirut, which, according to the news agency, did not receive evacuation orders.

The security sources said a building housing offices of the Ba'ath Party had been hit, and the head of the party in Lebanon, Ali Hijazi, told the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed that Afif had been in the building.

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party, another political party with ties to Hezbollah, said in a statement that Afif had been killed but gave no details of how or where. The Lebanese health ministry said the strike had killed one and injured three.

Ambulances could be heard rushing to the scene, and guns were fired to prevent crowds from approaching.

Afif was a long-time media adviser 

Afif was a long-time media adviser to Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sept. 27.

He managed Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station for several years before taking over the group's media office.

Afif hosted several press conferences for journalists amid the rubble in Beirut's southern suburbs. In his most recent comments to reporters on Nov. 11, he said Israeli troops had been unable to hold any territory in Lebanon and that Hezbollah had enough weapons and supplies to fight a long war.

In late October, Afif stated that it would "not be long before we have Israeli captives," adding that, at the time, Hezbollah did not hold any Israeli captives but that the terror organization "came close."

Earlier that month, Afif had vowed that Hezbollah was "only in the first round" as Israeli ground troops engaged the terror organization in southern Lebanon.

"The elimination of this individual, if indeed carried out by Israel, carries significant implications," a security official told Maariv on Sunday after Afif's elimination. "Firstly, such an action deals a moral blow to the Shia population and Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon. On the other hand, it could further impair the organization’s ability to operate both with the Lebanese public and its members. The individual was responsible for propaganda, conveying messages, and was a dominant figure for the organization's leadership in engaging with the Lebanese public."

In an early Sunday evening statement, the IDF reported that the air force had carried out "intelligence-based strikes on six Hezbollah military targets" in the Dahieh area.

Among the targets struck were weapons storage facilities, command centers, and other military sites, the IDF added.

The military reported that precautionary measures, such as collecting intelligence before the strike, using aerial surveillance, and providing advance warnings, were employed before the actions were taken. 

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.