Hezbollah’s media chief Mohammed Afif has been killed in an Israeli strike in central Beirut, the Lebanese militant group has confirmed.
A strike hit the headquarters of the Baath political party in the densely populated Ras al-Naba neighbourhood on Sunday, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
The country’s health ministry said four people were killed, but did not name the victims.
Afif, one of the few remaining public faces of the group, was last seen on Monday, when he gave a press conference in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the group is based.
Hezbollah confirmed the death on Sunday evening, several hours after it was first reported.
Most of the headquarters of the Lebanese branch of the Syrian Baath party was destroyed in the strike, as rescue and civil defence teams rushed to aid a number of people trapped under the rubble, the National News Agency reported.
The health ministry said 14 people were injured as well as the four killed.
The Lebanese Baath Party is a branch of the Syrian Baath Party, headed by President Bashar Al-Assad, and a long-time Hezbollah ally.
Its Lebanese headquarters are located by a busy central intersection connecting western and eastern Beirut with the city centre and the airport road, which passes through the southern suburbs.
BBC Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab said the development raised concern that Israel was expanding attacks beyond Hezbollah military officials. Hezbollah is also a political party with representatives in parliament and ministers in government.
“That is really sending alarm to people, that there are no signs of de-escalating this situation or finding a solution, but rather further escalation and widening Israeli targets against Hezbollah in Lebanon,” she told BBC’s news channel.
Later on Sunday, another strike in central Beirut on Mar Elias Street killed two people and wounded 13 more, the Lebanese health ministry said.