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Hezbollah spokesman killed in Israeli airstrike in Beirut, official says
The main spokesman for Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on central Beirut on Sunday, an official with the militant group said.
The Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, told the Associated Press that Mohammed Afif was killed in a strike on the Arab socialist Baath party’s office.
FADEL ITANI/AFP via Getty Images
Afif, who was the head of media relations for Hezbollah, has been especially visible after Israel’s military escalation in September and following the assassination of longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Last month, Afif had hastily wrapped up a press conference in Beirut ahead of Israeli strikes.
Israeli warplanes pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday after the military warned people to evacuate from several buildings.
The Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence in the area, known as the Dahiyeh, and the strikes came as Lebanese officials are considering a U.S.-brokered cease-fire proposal.
An Associated Press photographer at the scene of Sunday’s strike saw four bodies and four wounded people, but there was no official word on the toll. People could be seen fleeing the neighborhood. There was no comment from the Israeli military.
“I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire,” said Suheil Halabi, who witnessed the strike. “I was startled, honestly. This is the first time I experience it so close.”
Bilal Hussein / AP
The last Israeli strike in central Beirut was on Oct. 10, when 22 people were killed in strikes on two locations.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war in Gaza. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes in Lebanon and the conflict steadily escalated, erupting into all-out war in September. Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on Oct. 1.
Overnight strikes in central Gaza kill 12
Israeli strikes hit two built-up refugee camps in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, killing six people in Nuseirat and another four in Bureij.
Another two people were killed in a strike on Gaza’s main north-south highway, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, which received all 12 bodies.
The war between Israel and Hamas began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7. last year, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting around 250 others. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead.
Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Health Ministry in Gaza says around 43,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said women and children make up more than half the fatalities.
Also on Sunday, Israeli police said they arrested three suspects after flares were fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the coastal city of Caesarea.
Netanyahu and his family were not at the residence when two flares were fired at it overnight, and there were no injuries, authorities said. A drone launched by Hezbollah struck the residence last month, also when Netanyahu and his family were away.
The police did not provide details about the suspects behind the flares, but officials pointed to domestic political critics of Netanyahu. Israel’s largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the incident and warned against “an escalation of the violence in the public sphere.”
President Biden has given the OK to lift restrictions that will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided long-range weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News on Sunday. The move is a significant change to U.S. policy in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict.
The easing of restrictions would allow Kyiv to use the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia. The move also comes as some 10,000 North Korean troops were sent to Kursk near Ukraine’s northern border to help Russian forces retake territory.
The White House National Security Council declined to comment to CBS News.
The U.S. decision could help Ukraine at a moment when Russian forces appear to be making gains and could put Kyiv in a better negotiating position when and if peace talks happen.
It also comes as Mr. Biden is about to leave office and President-elect Trump has pledged to limit American support for Ukraine and ending the war as soon as possible.
In an interview with Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would like to end the war with Russia next year through “diplomatic means.”
He said he is certain that the war will end “sooner” than it otherwise would have once Mr. Trump becomes president.
“It is certain that the war will end sooner with the policies of the team that will now lead the White House. This is their approach, their promise to their citizens,” Zelenskyy said.
February 2025 would mark the third year of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine with Russia’s troops gaining ground in recent months.
For several months, Zelenskyy and many of his Western supporters have been requesting to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border, saying the U.S. ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
Some congressional Republicans have urged Mr. Biden to loosen the rules on how Ukraine can use U.S.-provided weapons.
contributed to this report.
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Ohio governor, other leaders condemn neo-Nazi march in Columbus: “Your hate isn’t welcome in our city”
Leaders in Ohio condemned a group of neo-Nazis parading around part of Columbus carrying flags with swastikas on Saturday afternoon.
Columbus public safety dispatchers told CBS affiliate WBNS on Saturday that they received multiple 911 calls around 1:30 p.m. about a group of individuals marching in the city’s Short North.
Video sent to the station showed nearly a dozen people wearing black pants, shirts and head coverings and red masks covering their mouths marching down the street. Three of the people were carrying black flags with red swastikas.
It was not immediately clear who was in the group.
Hours after the incident, Mayor Andrew Ginther released a statement saying the city rejects the “cowardly display” and that it “stands squarely against hatred and bigotry.”
“We will not allow any of our neighbors to be intimidated, threatened or harmed because of who they are, how they worship and whom they love,” Ginther said in his statement shared on X.
The city’s attorney, Zach Klein, said in a statement on X that those involved in the neo-Nazi march should “take your flags and the masks you hide behind and go home and never come back. Your hate isn’t welcome in our city.”
“This is not who we are, and we will not tolerate or normalize this disgusting ideology in any form,” he added.
Gov. Mike DeWine said in his own statement that the people involved in the incident were “spewing vile and racist speech against people of color and Jews.”
“There is no place in this State for hate, bigotry, antisemitism or violence, and we must denounce it wherever we see it,” he said.
Columbus Division of Police Sgt. Joseph Albert told WNBS that there were no arrests made, although he noted that many of the individuals were detained but later released.
Columbus, Ohio’s largest city, is located roughly 45 minutes from Springfield, where the Columbus Dispatch reported that neo-Nazis marched through the streets this summer as the city became the focal point of false claims about Haitian immigrants in the presidential election.
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