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Reportedly killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut on Sunday, Mohammed Afif was the spokesman for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
According to Lebanese security sources informed by Reuters and AFP, he perished during the strike on the capital of Lebanon. A Hezbollah official shared the same information with the Associated Press. Citing the head of the pro-Hezbollah Baath Party in Lebanon, Ali Hijazim, Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed claimed that Afif was at the headquarters when it was struck.
Although Hezbollah's media office has been accepting condolences in a presumably indication that Afif was killed, CNN has not yet confirmed the news.
Since 2006, when a 34-day armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah raged, the attack was the fourth Israeli strike inside Beirut's city limits.
With no evacuation warning issued, Sunday's strike landed in the middle of the day on the region known as Ras al-Nebaa. About the strike, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said nothing.
After a large-scale Israeli invasion operation drove Hezbollah deep underground, Afif was one of the few public faces of the organization. He also closely counseled Hassan Nasrallah, the long-time leader of Hezbollah.
From news conferences among the debris in Beirut's southern suburbs, he frequently spoke about attacks since Israel started a fresh onslaught on October 1.
Israel's apparent targeting of Afif coincides with an escalation in its offensive in Lebanon and more diplomatic initiatives aiming at a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.
CNN sources familiar with the negotiations indicate that Hezbollah is now going over a US-Israeli proposal sent to the Lebanese government on Thursday. Whether Afif's claimed killing affects the negotiations is unknown.
Israel's multiple front-of-war campaign
The health ministry in Gaza claims that at least fifty persons were killed in Israeli strikes on Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza on Sunday morning.
According to a local journalist, many Palestinians uprooted by the continuous Israeli operation in the surrounding Jabalya area were hiding in two of the houses struck.
One eyewitness, who also lives in the area, told CNN without revealing his name: "We were sitting at home and suddenly we heard intense strikes, thus we were not able to leave the house."
In the lack of ambulances and civil defense, the resident claimed the locals began clearing the dead from the debris. The civil defense of Gaza claims that ongoing Israeli strikes prevent them from functioning in the territory.
"These were people uprooted from Jabalya to Beit Lahiya," the eyewitness remarked.
CNN's video of the aftermath reveals children panicking, some crying in the background, as a man orders them to calm down and evacuate. A toddler covered in blood is cradled in someone's arms.
"Mama, mama," another young child cries in the background.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), over night in the vicinity of Beit Lahiya, "several strikes were conducted on terrorist targets." CNN Said to be "continuous efforts to evacuate the civilian population from the active war zone in the area" and "IDF is precisely operating and is doing everything possible to avoid causing harm to civilians."
Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were taken, claims separately Israeli strikes aimed at al-Bureij in central Gaza killed 23 people. CNN has also asked the IDF for remarks on those strikes.
One local resident, Mahmoud Azaiza, remarked, "It was a really terrible night, with the sounds of small children screaming – every little one calling for their mother."
Last month Israel started a fresh military attack on Jabalya after Israeli intelligence revealed Hamas was attempting to restore local capability. Thousands of Palestinians were displaced and scores were dead by the offensive.
According to IDF announcements released since October 6, the operation has caused losses on the Israeli military; 20 soldiers declared to have been killed in northern Gaza since the start, including four last week.
The IDF said last month, "this operation to systematically destroy terrorist infrastructure in the area will continue as long as necessary to achieve its objectives."
Israel's growing activity in southern Lebanon runs alongside the ongoing onslaught on Gaza. Considered to be the most severe incursion into southern Lebanese territory, Israeli forces arrived at the village of Chama Friday night, some 61 miles from Beirut's capital.
After running across Hezbollah, Israeli forces withdrew, according to Lebanese official media.
Israeli strikes kept hammering the Lebanese capital on Sunday for the sixth straight day. Sunday morning, the IDF issued fresh evacuation warnings for Haret Hreik residents in the southern Beirut suburbs, where Hezbollah is well-known to be rather active.
Political officials in Beirut were still debating a US initiative for a ceasefire as Israel targeted Lebanon this weekend; a Lebanese official familiar with the conversations told CNN on Saturday night.
In order to stop Israel's continuous offensive in Lebanon from spreading and destroying areas of the nation, US officials have urged for a ceasefire agreement. Sources told CNN this week that Hezbollah is now weighing the offer.
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