Israeli occupation targets Hezbollah military leader after assassinating media official

Hezbollah mourned Afif and said he was assassinated "along with the best of his mujahid brothers," and the Lebanese Ministry of Health said the raid on Ras al-Nabaa resulted in 4 deaths and 14 injuries.

The last time the capital Beirut was targeted was about a month ago, when an Israeli raid targeted Hezbollah's liaison and coordination officer, Wafiq Safa, amid uncertainty about his fate.

Hamas mourns

For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) mourned Afif, "who was killed in a treacherous airstrike carried out by the Zionist enemy," according to its statement, stressing that "the assassination of a political media figure will not silence the voice of the resistance, but rather reveals the depth of the moral abyss in which the occupation lies."

Hamas stressed that "the criminal policy pursued by the occupation will not deter the resistance forces from their goal of removing it from our land and our holy sites," affirming that "Afeef's blood will not be shed in vain."

After clashes with factions in Lebanon, most notably Hezbollah, which began after Israel launched a genocide on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of more than 147,000 Palestinians, Tel Aviv expanded the scope of the genocide since September 23 to include most areas of Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, through air strikes, and also began a ground invasion in the south.

The Israeli aggression on Lebanon resulted in a total of 3,452 deaths and 14,664 wounded, including a large number of children and women, in addition to about 1.4 million displaced persons. Most of the victims and displaced persons were recorded after September 23.

(Al Jazeera + Agencies)