Hezbollah’s spokesman Mohammed Afif was killed in a rare Israeli attack on central Beirut, an official said

BEIRUT — A rare Israeli airstrike on central Beirut killed Hezbollah’s chief spokesman on Sunday, an official of the militant group said. Previously, Israeli strikes have killed at least 12 people in the Gaza Strip, officials said, where Israel has been at war with Palestinian Hamas for more than a year.

The latest in a series of targeted killings of senior Hezbollah officials came as Lebanese officials considered a US-led ceasefire proposal. Israel also bombed several buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has long had its headquarters, after warning people to evacuate.

Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s head of media relations, was killed in an attack on the Arab Socialist Baath Party’s office in central Beirut, according to a Hezbollah official who was not authorized to brief reporters and so spoke on condition anonymity.

Afif had remained especially visible after the outbreak of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah in September and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was also the target of an Israeli airstrike. Last month, Afif had hurriedly wrapped up a press conference in Beirut ahead of the Israeli attacks.

A rare attack on central Beirut

An Associated Press photographer saw four lifeless bodies and four injured people at the site of Sunday’s strike, but there was no official word on the toll. People could be seen fleeing the area. There was no comment from the Israeli military.

“I was sleeping and woke up to the sounds of the strike, people shouting, cars and gunfire,” said Suheil Halabi, who witnessed the strike. “I was honestly shocked. This is the first time I’ve experienced it up close.”

The last Israeli attack in central Beirut took place on October 10, when 22 people were killed in attacks on two locations.

Hezbollah began firing missiles, rockets and drones into Israel the day after Hamas’ attack ignited the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes on Lebanon and the conflict steadily escalated, culminating in all-out war in September. Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on October 1.

Hezbollah has continued to fire dozens of projectiles into Israel every day and has expanded its reach into the central part of the country. A rocket fire on the northern city of Haifa damaged a synagogue and injured two civilians on Saturday.

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

On the Israeli side, Hezbollah airstrikes have killed at least 76 people, including 31 soldiers, and prompted some 60,000 people to flee communities in the north.

Twelve people have been killed in overnight strikes in central Gaza

Israeli attacks killed six people in Nuseirat and another four in Bureij, two refugee camps built up in central Gaza that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s founding.

Two more people were killed in an attack on Gaza’s main north-south highway, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, which received all 12 bodies.

The war between Israel and Hamas began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7 last year, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping about 250 others. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

The Health Ministry in Gaza says about 43,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but says women and children make up more than half of the fatalities.

About 90% of Gaza’s population, 2.3 million Palestinians, has been displaced, and large parts of the territory have been flattened by Israeli bombing and ground operations.

Israeli police arrest three people after flares are fired at Netanyahu’s house

Israeli police, meanwhile, have arrested three suspects after flares were fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in the coastal city of Caesarea.

Netanyahu and his family were not in the home when two flares were fired overnight, and no injuries were reported, authorities said. A drone launched by Hezbollah struck the home last month, even while Netanyahu and his family were away.

Police did not provide details about the suspects behind the flares, but officials pointed to Netanyahu’s domestic political critics. Israel’s largely ceremonial President Isaac Herzog condemned the incident and warned of “an escalation of violence in the public sphere.”

Netanyahu has faced mass protests for months. Critics blame him for the security and intelligence failures that enabled the Oct. 7 attack and for failing to reach an agreement with Hamas on the release of dozens of hostages still held in Gaza. Israelis gathered again in the city of Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to demand a ceasefire to send them back.

The Israeli minister wants to revive the polarizing overhaul of the legal system

Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin seized on the flare-up attack on Netanyahu’s home to call for a revival of his plans to overhaul Israel’s judiciary, which had sparked months of mass protests before the war.

“The time has come to fully support the restoration of the justice and law enforcement systems, and to put an end to anarchy, frenzy, refusal and attempts to harm the Prime Minister,” he said in a statement .

Supporters said the changes to the judicial system aim to strengthen democracy by limiting the authority of unelected judges and transferring more powers to elected officials. Opponents see the review as a power grab by Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges and for an attack on a key watchdog.

Many Israelis believe that the fierce internal divisions caused by the attempted overhaul had weakened the country and its army prior to Hamas’ attack.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on

“Levin should go home with the rest of this irresponsible government,” Lapid wrote. “We will not allow him to turn Israel into an undemocratic state.”

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Melzer reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporters Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed.