Israel says it targeted Iranian commanders in Beirut as death toll nears 400

By Ahmed Kerdi and Maayan Lubell

Israel's military said it hit Iranian commanders in the Lebanese capital early on Sunday, expanding the scope of its campaign to the heart of Beirut after days of strikes that have left nearly 400 people dead.

The drone strike was the first within the city limits of Lebanon's capital since Israel-Hezbollah hostilities resumed last week, and came amid heavy bombardment on Beirut's southern suburbs and the country's south and east.

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.

TWO ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILLED IN SOUTH LEBANON

An Israeli military source said the strike targeted five senior Quds Force members, including intelligence and finance personnel.

Lebanon says four people were killed in the strike, part of a rapidly rising death toll that has reached 394 people, the health ministry said on Sunday, including at least 83 children and 42 women.

Lebanon's health ministry does not otherwise distinguish between civilians and military personnel.

Israel's military has so far killed about 200 Hezbollah militants, spokesman Nadav Shoshani said in an online briefing. Hezbollah has not published a toll for its fighters.

Israel's military announced on Sunday that two Israeli soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, the first casualties in the Israeli army since the launch of the war.

Lebanon was pulled into the widening U.S.-Israel war with Iran on Monday after the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah fired into Israel. Israel responded with heavy strikes across southern and eastern Lebanon and near Beirut - and a rare Israeli airborne raid deep into Lebanese territory that left 41 dead.

CHILDREN AMONG WOUNDED IN BEIRUT

The Raouche neighbourhood on Beirut's seafront is typically a tourist attraction, but in recent days has hosted people displaced by strikes, some of whom stayed at the Ramada hotel.

Israel's strike appeared to hit a corner suite on the hotel's fourth floor. A Reuters reporter observed the windows of the suite were shattered and surrounding facade blackened.

Ten people were also injured in the attack on Beirut's Raouche area, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Khalil Abou Mohammad was staying in a building across the street after being displaced earlier this week.

His three children were wounded by the force of the strike and were undergoing surgery at a nearby hospital, he said as he showed Reuters bloodstained bed covers.

"We came to stay here, and as you can see, we were sleeping at 3:30 (a.m.) and the strike hit," Abou Mohammad told Reuters.

Other heavy bombardment in southern Lebanese towns on Sunday pulverized several homes, Reuters footage showed. A children's notebook lay in the debris near sheets of destroyed solar panels and cars buried under mounds of dust and debris.

ISRAEL WARNS IRANIAN OFFICIALS IN LEBANON

Last week, Israel said it had killed the commander of Iran's Quds Force in Lebanon, Daoud Ali Zadeh, in a strike in Tehran.

It said a strike on Beirut's suburbs had killed Reza Khuza'i, whom it said was head of Hezbollah's weapons build-up and chief of staff of the Quds Force's Lebanon Corps.

Israel has warned any representatives of Iran in Lebanon to leave immediately or risk being targeted, and struck an area near the Iranian embassy in Lebanon earlier this week.

Dozens of Iranian nationals have left in recent days, and the Lebanese government has ordered authorities to arrest and deport any Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, though it was unclear if they had done so.

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati has denied that Iranian forces are on the ground in Lebanon.