Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday announced that it has killed Chief Propagandist and Spokesperson of Hezbollah, Mohammed Afif. IDF shared about the elimination of Afif on X. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon on Sunday.
Mohammed Afif was the chief of Hezbollah’s media relations, The Times of Israel reported. Reportedly, in 1983, he started working in the media. He was close to Hassan Nasrallah and had served as media counselor to Nasrallah.
Who Was Mohammed Afif?
IDF stated that Afif was a senior Hezbollah military operative, in contact with senior officials and directly involved in advancing and executing Hezbollah’s terrorist activities against Israel. Afif joined the Hezbollah organisation in the 1980s and was an influential figure on Hezbollah’s military activities.
As per Al Jazeera report, Afif looked after news and political programming on the organization’s Al-Manar TV and was instrumental in overseeing media coverage during the July 2006 Israeli-Lebanese war.
As the orchestrator and communicator of the organisation’s propaganda, Afif ordered operatives to gather footage from the field to be used for group’s propaganda and psychological terror operations.
It added that messages broadcasted by Afif to the Lebanese media glorified and incited terrorist activities against Israel.
IDF held him responsible for numerous psychological terror operations against the Israeli public.
“Afif’s impact on the terrorist organisation proves that he was directly involved in Hezbollah’s terrorist activity against the State of Israel”, the IDF further added.
The reports of Afif’s elimination by IDF came at time when Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence was attacked on Sunday. Three suspects were arrested for throwing flares at Netanyahu’s residence. Earlier, PM Netanyahu’s private residence was attacked by Hezbollah drone in October.
Earlier, the IAF had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah terrorist targets in Dahieh, a key Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut where terrorist infrastructure is systematically embedded.
