Israel kills Hezbollah media chief in Beirut as strikes intensify

Hezbollah's chief spokesman has been killed by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, as Israel intensifies its air offensive in Lebanon despite indirect negotiations for a ceasefire.

- Jason Burke Jerusalem William Christou Beirut Malak A Tantesh Gaza

Mohammed Afif, the public face of Hezbollah for months, died in a strike on offices of the Ba'ath party in Ras al-Nabaa, central Beirut. The attack in the residential area came without warning and appeared to damage neighboring buildings.

The son of a prominent Shia cleric, Afif managed the Hezbollah-run TV network Al Manar before taking over as head of the militant Islamist group's media relations. After the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah, on 28 September, Afif became one of the group's most prominent officials.

Analysts said Asif was the first official with such a role to be killed by Israel, as all previous targets had military or senior leadership posts. Until yesterday, there had been no Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut since mid-October.

Witnesses saw four bodies at the scene of the strike, which came a day before Lebanon was expected to deliver its response to a US-delivered ceasefire proposal. There was no official word on the death toll.

"I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire," said Suheil Halabi, a local resident.

In northern Gaza, civil defence workers confirmed 30 deaths from an Israeli strike that hit a five-storey residential building in Beit Lahiya.

An Israeli military spokesperson said strikes were conducted on "terrorist targets".

"We emphasise that there have been continued efforts to evacuate the civilian population from the active war zone in the area, in parallel with efforts to expand the humanitarian area in al-Mawasi The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is precisely operating and is doing everything possible to avoid causing harm to civilians," they said.