Hamas mourns death of Hezbollah's media chief, condemns Israeli attack

ISTANBUL

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas mourned the death of Mohammad Afif, Hezbollah’s media relations chief, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike Sunday on the Lebanese capital Beirut.

“The assassination of a political media figure will not silence the voice of resistance but will instead expose the deep moral chasm in which the occupation lies,” Hamas said in a statement.

“This criminal policy adopted by the terrorist occupation will not deter the free resistance forces from their goal of breaking the will of this fascist occupier and removing it from our land and sanctities," it added.

The group strongly condemned the "Zionist enemy's (Israeli) perpetration of this heinous crime."

It noted that Afif, “through his bold media appearances from the heart of Beirut's southern suburbs during the height of Israel's brutal aggression on Lebanon represented a strong and defiant voice of resistance that unsettled the occupation and its failing system.”

Earlier on Sunday, Ali Hijazi, the Secretary-General of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Lebanon, confirmed Afif's death, noting that he was accidentally present in a building belonging to the Ba'ath Party in the Ras al-Nabaa area in the heart of Beirut.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said in a statement that an Israeli airstrike on the Ras al-Nabaa area of the capital killed at least one person and injured at least three others.

Israel launched an air campaign in Lebanon against what it claims are targets of the Hezbollah group in late September, in an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare over Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

More than 3,400 people have been killed, over 14,600 injured and more than 1 million displaced by Israeli attacks since last October, according to Lebanese health authorities.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region is on the brink of a regional war, Israel expanded the conflict by launching a ground assault into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1 this year.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala