Israeli strikes kill Hezbollah spokesman in Beirut, dozens in Gaza

Beirut: A rare Israeli strike in central Beirut has killed the Hezbollah militant group’s chief spokesman, while another in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya killed at least 30 people, the director of a hospital there said.

Mohammed Afif was killed in a hit on the Arab socialist Baath party’s office in Beirut, according to a Hezbollah official who was not authorised to brief reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity. Afif had been especially visible after all-out war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah in September.

Killed: Hezbollah’s chief spokesman Mohammed Afif, holds a press conference in Dahiyeh, a Beirut suburb, last week.Credit: AP

It was the latest targeted killing of senior Hezbollah officials. Another strike in central Beirut hit a computer shop, killing two people and wounding 13, the country’s Health Ministry said.

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

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The strikes occurred as Lebanese officials consider a United States-led ceasefire proposal.

Screams in central Beirut

There was no Israeli evacuation warning before the strike near a busy intersection in central Beirut that killed Afif. An AP photographer there saw four bodies and four wounded people.

“I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire,” said witness Suheil Halabi. “I was startled, honestly. This is the first time I experience it so close.”

After the second strike, firefighters struggled to control the blaze in the busy residential neighbourhood of Mar Elias. Small explosions could be heard in the shop. Bystanders said they heard a second explosion and a car nearby appeared to be hit.

A man screams in front a fire erupting inside a computer shop hit during an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut.Credit: AP

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

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

In Gaza, an escalation

Hosam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, said there were dozens of wounded after the Israeli strike there, and others likely were still under the rubble.

Fleeing residents told the AP that houses were hit.

Men mourn over the bodies of victims from an Israeli airstrike outside a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on Sunday.Credit: AP

An Israeli military statement earlier said it conducted several strikes on “terrorist targets” in Beit Lahiya. It said efforts to evacuate civilians from the “active war zone” there continued.

Israeli forces have again been on the offensive in northern Gaza, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there.

“Tonight we did not sleep at all,” said one fleeing Beit Lahiya resident, Dalal al-Bakri. “They destroyed all the houses around us. ... There are many martyrs.”

A woman, Umm Hamza, said the bombing had escalated overnight. “It’s cold and we don’t know where to go,” she said.

Earlier, officials said Israeli strikes killed six people in Nuseirat and four in Bureij, two built-up refugee camps in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

Two people were killed in a strike on Gaza’s main north-south highway, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

Israel’s military said two soldiers were killed in northern Gaza on Sunday.

The war between Israel and Hamas began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel last year, killing about 1200 people – mostly civilians – and abducting around 250 others. Around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, about a third believed to be dead. About 43,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip, and 90 per cent of the population has been displaced.

Civil defence workers extinguish a fire from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Sunday.Credit: AP

Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide, according to excerpts released on Sunday from an upcoming book.

On Sunday, Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said it held a joint meeting with the heads of the army and intelligence to discuss mediation efforts to release the hostages. It was the first public word of any such effort since Qatar announced it was suspending its mediation work earlier this month.

Arrests after flares fired at Netanyahu’s home

Israeli police arrested three suspects after two flares were fired overnight at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the coastal city of Caesarea.

Netanyahu and his family were not there, authorities said. A drone launched by Hezbollah struck the residence last month, also when they were away.

The police did not provide details about the suspects, but officials pointed to domestic political critics of Netanyahu.

AP