Lebanon Says Israeli Strike on Beirut Hotel Kills Four

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday as Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.

Israel, which continues its attacks targeting Hezbollah despite the ceasefire in 2024, launched several waves of attacks across Lebanon this week and sent ground troops to the border regions.

Lebanon’s health ministry said early Sunday that an Israeli airstrike in downtown Beirut targeted “a hotel room”, killing four people and wounding 10 others.

The Israeli army had previously announced that it had “launched an additional wave of attacks in Beirut”, saying it was targeting the capital’s southern suburbs, which are Hezbollah’s stronghold.

A separate statement later said Israeli forces had carried out a “precise attack” in Beirut, targeting “key commanders” in the Quds Force, the Guard’s external operations arm.

In the statement, whose exact location was not specified, unidentified commanders were accused of planning “terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and its civilians.”

He stated that Israel “will continue to definitively eliminate the commanders of the Iranian terrorist regime wherever they operate.”

An AFP photographer at the bombarded seaside hotel saw a room on the fourth floor with windows shattered and walls charred as security forces cordoned off the area.

The Raouche district, where the hotel is located, is a major tourist destination and was not affected by Israeli attacks during the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a ceasefire in November 2024.

The photographer said dozens of panicked guests fled the hotel with their luggage.

Two eyewitnesses said they heard a loud explosion before ambulances arrived at the scene.

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The area along the Mediterranean coast is home to dozens of hotels now overcrowded with displaced people who have fled their homes elsewhere in Lebanon due to ongoing conflict.

This is 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 Hazmieh district outside Beirut, near the presidential palace, several ministries and diplomatic missions.

Live footage from AFPTV from Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday also showed smoke billowing after what appeared to be an airstrike.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for rocket attacks targeting Israeli forces and a city across the border early Sunday “in response to murderous Israeli aggression that has affected dozens of Lebanese cities and towns,” according to the group.

Hezbollah also said its fighters engaged in clashes with Israeli forces near the border town of Aytarun.

Air raid sirens sounded in many areas in northern Israel, and there were no reports of any casualties or damage.