Four killed in Israeli attack on hotel in Beirut, Lebanon the news

Israel says the IRGC has targeted key commanders of Iran’s elite Quds Force but has not named them.

Lebanon’s health officials said at least four people were killed in an Israeli attack on a hotel in the center of the capital Beirut that targeted commanders in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Israel said, as it stepped up its attacks on Iran.

Lebanon was drawn into the regional war on March 2 when the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes that began on February 28, killing more than 1,300 people.

Early Sunday morning, the Lebanese Ministry of Health launched an Israeli airstrike into Beirut’s city center, targeting a “hotel room” in Rouche, a popular tourist destination. Besides the four killed, at least 10 people were injured, it added.

Rouche remained untouched by Israeli attacks during the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a cease-fire in November 2024, as well as subsequent attacks by Israel in violation of the agreement.

The area along the Mediterranean coast is home to dozens of hotels, now crowded with displaced people who fled their homes elsewhere in Lebanon because of the ongoing fighting.

The targeted 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 airstrikes.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it was targeting key commanders of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, but did not name them.

“Commanders of the Lebanese Corps of the Quds Force operated to spearhead terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and its citizens, while simultaneously operating for the IRGC in Iran,” it added.

Israel launched several waves of attacks across Lebanon this week and sent ground troops into border areas.

In southern Lebanon, at least 12 people were killed in three separate overnight attacks, the official National News Agency said.

The Israeli military announced earlier that it had “launched additional strikes in Beirut,” which it said targeted the southern suburbs of the capital, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Footage from Beirut’s southern suburbs showed smoke after what appeared to be at least two airstrikes several hours apart.

The overnight attack was the second Israeli attack on a hotel in the Beirut area this week. On Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike hit a hotel in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Hazmeeh outside Beirut.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack targeting Israeli forces and a city across the border early Sunday morning. It said its fighters were engaged in clashes with Israeli forces near the border town of Aitaroun.

Air raid sirens sounded in several areas of northern Israel, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued a forced evacuation order for four villages in southern Lebanon on Sunday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam recently said, “The consequences of this displacement, on a humanitarian and political level, could be unprecedented.”

“Our country has been dragged into a devastating war that we did not seek and did not choose,” he said.