Israel’s military said it hit Iranian commanders in the Lebanese capital early 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.
Rakan Nassereddine told a press conference that 42 women and 83 children were among those killed in the attacks, while the injured included 274 women and 254 children.
Israel has expanded its military campaign in Lebanon since Monday, following limited rocket fire by Hezbollah amid broader regional tensions linked to the war launched by Israel and the US against Iran.
Despite a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah since November 2024, Israel has continued near-daily violations that have left hundreds dead and wounded.
Israel has killed more than 4,000 people and wounded 17,000 during an offensive in Lebanon that began in October 2023 and escalated into a full-scale war in September 2024.
Lebanon was dragged into the wider Middle East war on Monday when Hezbollah fired at Israel, which responded with a new military campaign that has killed nearly 300 people and forced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes.
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, buildings lay in mounds of smoking rubble and twisted metal, Reuters footage showed.
Further east, in the town of Nabi Chit, a heavy Israeli bombardment after a rare Israeli airborne raid had punched craters into the ground, burying cars in mountains of dirt and launching one vehicle onto the roof of a two-storey building.
