Israeli strike in Beirut targets Iranian commanders as Lebanon death toll nears 400
Beirut, March 9 – Israel’s military said it targeted Iranian commanders in a drone strike in Beirut early on Sunday, expanding its campaign into the Lebanese capital as nearly 400 people have been killed during a week of Israeli bombardment linked to the widening conflict involving Iran and its regional allies.
The strike marked the first attack within the city limits of Beirut since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah resumed last week. It came amid continued airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as southern and eastern Lebanon, areas where Israel says militant infrastructure linked to Iran-backed groups is concentrated.
Israel’s military said the operation targeted senior commanders from the Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The military did not publicly identify those killed.
“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.
An Israeli military source said the strike targeted five senior Quds Force members involved in intelligence and financial operations connected to Iranian activity in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health ministry said four people were killed in the drone strike in the capital. The ministry said the cumulative death toll from Israeli strikes across Lebanon since the escalation began has reached 394 people.
The health ministry said those killed include at least 83 children and 42 women. Lebanese authorities do not differentiate in official tallies between civilians and fighters.
The attack in Beirut represents a significant expansion of Israel’s operations, which had previously focused largely on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon and areas near the Syrian border.
Israel’s military said it has killed approximately 200 Hezbollah militants since the start of the conflict, according to military spokesman Nadav Shoshani, who provided the figure during an online briefing. Hezbollah has not released an official count of its fighters killed.
The Israeli army also reported its first battlefield losses since the war began, announcing on Sunday that two Israeli soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon.Military officials did not provide details about the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
The latest escalation follows Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel earlier in the week, which drew large-scale Israeli airstrikes across Lebanese territory.
Lebanon became directly involved in the broader confrontation between Iran and a U.S.-Israel alliance after Hezbollah, which is backed by Tehran, launched attacks toward Israel on Monday.
Israel responded with extensive bombardment targeting southern and eastern Lebanon and areas near Beirut.
Earlier in the conflict, Israel also carried out a rare airborne raid deep inside Lebanese territory that Lebanese authorities said killed 41 people.
The expansion of Israeli operations into Beirut highlights the widening geographic scope of the conflict as regional tensions linked to Iran continue to intensify
