BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 17 (UPI) — Two Israeli strikes that hit densely-populated neighborhoods in Beirut Sunday killed 6 people, including Hezbollah spokesman Mohamad Afif, and wounded 36 others, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
It was not immediately clear what was the target of an evening strike on the Mar Elias neighborhood where a big explosion was heard, and a fire broke out in a car and a computer shop.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli Army Radio as saying that the head of the operations department in Hezbollah’s “Southern Front” was the target of the airstrike that hit a vehicle and an apartment in Beirut. It did not name him.
There has been no immediate confirmation by Hezbollah.
Two people were killed and 22 others injured during the strike, according to the Health Ministry.
Hours earlier, the head of Hezbollah’s media relations, Mohammad Afif, was killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a 4-story building housing the headquarters of Al Baath Party in Ras al Nabaa area.
“Mohammad Afif was inside the building for a special meeting,” Baath Party leader Ali Hijazi told Al Jadeed (New TV) television station.
Hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Afif’s assassination.
Afif, who has been in his post since 2014, is among dozens of Hezbollah top officials and military commanders assassinated by Israel in similar airstrikes over the past months. They included Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a powerful strike on his bunker in Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27.
The Health Ministry counted four people killed, including a woman, and 14 others wounded, among them two children.
Ambulances rushed to the scene while bulldozers started to remove the rubble of the targeted building which was half destroyed.
The strike, which came without any Israeli alert to evacuate, pushed residents to flee the area.
It occurred after Israel carried out 10 powerful strikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut in the early morning hours on Sunday, flattening more buildings.
Israel has been giving short warnings to the residents of the southern suburbs to evacuate before the strikes that are now taking place day and night. It refrained to do so on the strike targeting Afif as it was “an assassination and did not target Hezbollah’s infrastructure,” according to The Times of Israel.
Israel has stepped up its air strikes on the southern suburbs and eastern Lebanon for the past days to force Hezbollah to accept its cease-fire conditions. The Israeli Army said some 200 targets were struck from the air in five waves of strikes over the weekend alone.
Lebanese officials are expected to respond to a US written cease-fire proposal that was previously discussed with U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein.
Cease-fire talks have been focusing on the complete implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel but has not been fully respected by both parties since.
The resolution calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah and for the Army and U.N. peacekeeping troops to be the only force in charge of security in the southern border area.
Israel has been trying to impose new conditions to secure more enforcement mechanisms and prevent Hezbollah’s rearming and funding. Lebanon rejected the Israeli conditions for they violate Lebanon’s sovereignty and insisted on the implementation of Resolution 1701 as is.
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