Israel strikes central Beirut, killing Hezbollah media relations head amid intensive raids on Beirut’s suburbs, south Lebanon

Shortly before 2 pm on Sunday, Israel launched an airstrike without warning on the headquarters of the Syrian Arab Socialist Baath Party in Ras al-Nabaa, a crowded area of central Beirut.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said in an initial casualty count that one person was killed and three people were injured in the strike on the multi-story building while search and rescue operations were ongoing. Video footage shared online in the wake of the strike showed that the building had been razed to the ground, with falling rubble causing substantial damage to cars parked along the adjacent road.

Ali Hijazi, the head of the Baath Party in Lebanon, told the Lebanese Al-Jadeed channel that the airstrike had killed head of Hezbollah’s media relations, Mohamed Afif, who has been responsible for providing journalists with briefings on the group’s operations to resist Israeli forces in south Lebanon over the past 50 days since Israel launched its invasion.

Hijazi told Al-Jadeed channel that “Afif happened to be present in the building for a private meeting when the airstrike took place.”

Sunday afternoon’s strike was the first in over a month to target central Beirut, where hundreds of thousands of residents and displaced people from other areas of the city are still living. 

Almost daily airstrikes have pummeled the southwestern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, especially over the past week, in which a continuous barrage of raids has caused widespread destruction and prompted another wave of displacement from neighborhoods spanning the capital’s suburbs, from Burj al-Barajneh all the way to the neighborhood of Chiyah, which borders more central areas of Beirut.

After issuing a flurry of evacuation notices to residents in the vicinity of specific buildings across Dahiyeh, Israel continued its airstrikes on the southwestern suburbs throughout Sunday morning, bringing a 12-story building in Chiyah to the ground, as well as launching raids on Burj al-Barajneh and at least four separate airstrikes on Haret Hreik.

Sunday marked the sixth consecutive day in which Beirut’s suburbs have been bombarded by waves of over 10 airstrikes, beginning in the morning and continuing throughout the day. 

The heightened intensity of the attacks pushed residents to rush to leave the area, causing heavy traffic on roads out of the capital last week. 

Israel has also ramped up the intensity of its airstrikes on the country’s south over recent days. Its military issued evacuation orders for at least 14 buildings in the historic city of Sur on Saturday, launching raids on them shortly after and leaving widespread destruction in their wake.

The Health Ministry official for the district of Sur, Wissam al-Ghazani, told Mada Masr that “the targeting has neared the hospitals, endangering health workers.” Some of the evacuation orders issued on Saturday were for buildings in the hospitals’ vicinity, he explained, noting that they had caused hospitals to halt admissions temporarily.

The number of people being injured in attacks has increased over recent days, Ghazani added. Companies providing medical supplies have become reluctant to approach Sur, and the roads leading to hospitals have also been targeted, he said, noting the difficulty in providing the necessary medical care.

Among the higher-fatality airstrikes was a raid on a house in Arabsalim that killed seven members of the same family in the Nabatieh Governorate on Saturday night.

The family had been displaced from Arabsalim by Israel’s aggression, renting temporary housing in Akkar in Lebanon’s north. But Mada Masr’s correspondent in Nabatieh said that they eventually returned to Arabsalim as their landlord in Akkar had increased the rent. Their home was targeted minutes after their return to Arabsalim.

Arabsalim municipality head Mahmoud Hussein told Mada Masr that most residents of the village work in agriculture in the area and are not able to afford rental contracts elsewhere in the country, which have become costly amid the wave of displacement.

The Lebanese state should take responsibility for those who have been displaced by the war by “placing a cap on rent for displaced people,” Hussein said.

Environment Minister Nasser Yassin has said that while around 250,000 people are in shelters for the displaced, around 900,000 other displaced individuals are staying in private residences.

Another raid on Baalbek on the same night, Saturday, killed six people, including three children, and injured 11 more, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

That night, the ministry said that 3,452 people have been killed since Israel began striking Lebanon in October, 2023.

As Israel continued its incursions at the border, Hezbollah announced that it had targeted with rockets and artillery shells two Israeli military gatherings in the towns of Khiam and Shama. The party's fighters launched rockets at advancing Israeli forces on the outskirts of the town of Shama on Saturday, the group said, and clashed with them with light weapons from zero distance.

In longer-range attacks, the group said it had bombed the Ma'ale Golani barracks, the headquarters of the Hermon 810 Brigade, with rockets and that it targeted the Krayot area, north of Haifa, with a barrage of rockets.