Israel says Iranian officials targeted in Beirut as death toll nears 400 – National
Israel’s military said it attacked Iranian authorities in the Lebanese capital early Sunday, increasing the level of strikes in the heart of Beirut after days of strikes that left nearly 400 people dead.
The strike is the first on the border of Lebanon’s capital city since the Israeli-Hezbollah war began last week, and comes amid bombings in areas south of Beirut and in the south and east of the country.
Israel said it targeted important police forces in Iran, the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, but did not name them.
“Commanders of the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps worked to advance terrorist attacks on the land of Israel and its citizens, while simultaneously serving the IRGC in Iran,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Four people died in the latest strike: Lebanon
Lebanon says four people have died 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 makes no other distinction between civilians and soldiers.
Israeli forces have so far killed 200 Hezbollah fighters, spokesman Nadav Shoshani said in an online forum. Hezbollah has not published the number of charges for its fighters.
Lebanon was drawn into the Iran-US-Israel conflict that escalated on Monday after the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah opened fire on Israel. Israel responded with heavy strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon and in Beirut.
The most recent deadly strikes were in eastern Lebanon
One of the deadliest bombings occurred two days ago in eastern Lebanon, where 41 people were killed during a rare Israeli airstrike on Lebanese territory.
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The Raouche neighborhood along Beirut’s seafront is usually a tourist attraction, but in recent days it has become home to people displaced by strikes, some of whom are staying at the Ramada hotel.
The strike appeared to hit a corner room on the fourth floor of the hotel. A Reuters reporter saw the windows of the suite broken and the surrounding faces blackened.
Ten people were also injured during the attack in the Raouche area of Beirut, said the Ministry of Health in Lebanon.
Khalil Abou Mohammad lived in a building across the street after being evicted earlier this week.
His three children, who were injured in the strike and are being treated at a nearby hospital, will need surgery, he said as he showed Reuters beds covered in blood.
“We came to live here, and as you can see, we were sleeping at 3:30 (am) and the strike hit,” Abou Mohammad told Reuters.
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 in the Beirut area killed Reza Khuza’i, who they said was Hezbollah’s head of weapons development and chief of staff of the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps.
Israel warned any Iranian representatives in Lebanon to leave immediately or risk being targeted, and raided a compound near Iran’s embassy in Lebanon earlier this week.
Dozens of Iranians have left in recent days, and the Lebanese government has ordered authorities to arrest and deport any Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, although it was not clear whether they did so.
Hezbollah chief Mahmoud Qmati has denied that Iranian forces are present in Lebanon.
Pope Leo calls for an end to the bombing, calls for dialogue
Pope Leo said on Sunday that troubling news continues to arrive from Iran and the Middle East, urging an end to violence and new efforts to open a space for dialogue.
As the war escalates into the ninth day of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, the first US Pope has warned that the conflict is fueling fear and hatred and expressed concern that it could escalate.
“Besides the episodes of violence and destruction and the widespread hatred and fear, there is also a growing concern that the conflict may escalate and that other countries in the region, including the beloved Lebanon, may once again sink into instability,” said Leo in the Angelus prayer at St.
“Let’s raise our humble prayer to Jehovah to stop the roar of the bombs, to silence the weapons, to open a space for dialogue where people’s voices can be heard”, he added.
A senior Vatican official warned on Wednesday that the US-Israeli strikes undermined international law and said countries had no right to launch “preventive wars”, a direct criticism of the military campaign.
-Reporting by Laila Bassam, Ahmed Kerdi and Hatem Maher; Written by Maya Gebeily; Edited by Franklin Paul, Diane Craft and Bernadette Baum
