BEIRUT, March 8 (Reuters) – At least four people were killed when an Israeli strike hit an apartment in the Ramada hotel building in central Beirut early on Sunday, with Israel saying it targeted Iranian commanders operating in the Lebanese capital.
The attack marked the first Israeli strike to hit the heart of Beirut since Israel-Hezbollah hostilities resumed last week.
Ten people were also injured in the attack on Beirut’s Raouche area, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement.
Israel said it targeted key commanders of Iran’s elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards but did not name them.
“The commanders of the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps operated to advance terror attacks against the state of Israel and its civilians, while operating simultaneously for the IRGC in Iran,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
The hotel was housing displaced people fleeing the war in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, and some were seen leaving the building for fear of further air strikes.
Last week, Israel said it had killed the commander of Iran’s Quds Force in Lebanon, Daoud Ali Zadeh, in a strike in Tehran.
Lebanon was pulled into the widening U.S.-Israel war with Iran on Monday after the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah fired rockets and drones into Israel. Israel responded with heavy strikes across southern and eastern Lebanon and near Beirut.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam and Hatem Maher, Editing by Franklin Paul and Diane Craft)
