The war between Israel and Hezbollah has surged into the heart of Beirut after an Israeli operation targeted a luxury hotel in the Raouche district early on Sunday morning, killing five senior figures from Iran’s Quds Force and shattering any illusion of safety in the city’s bustling coastal zone.
Previously confined to Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut’s southern suburbs, the strikes have now pierced central areas teeming with restaurants, holidaymakers, and displaced families seeking refuge amid the chaos of renewed hostilities.
The Israel Defense Forces, acting on precise intelligence about a clandestine meeting, unleashed a naval-guided assault on the fourth floor of the Ramada Plaza hotel around 1:30am. The blast hurled shrapnel across streets filled with Ramadan crowds, wounding bystanders and trapping guests in smoke-choked corridors.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported four dead and ten injured initially, contributing to a national death toll approaching 500 since fighting erupted last week following the collapse of a November 2024 ceasefire. Over half a million Lebanese are now displaced, many crowding into central hotels after mass evacuation orders.
The IDF identified the slain as Majid Hassani, a key financier for Iranian proxies; intelligence specialists Alireza Bi-Azar and Ahmad Rasouli; and operatives Hossein Ahmadlou and Abu Mohammad Ali. Their deaths represent “a significant and necessary blow to the Iranian presence in Lebanon and to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation,” the military declared, vowing to pursue such targets relentlessly.
Iran rejected the claims, insisting four were embassy diplomats who had relocated to the hotel after Israeli threats prompted over 150 nationals to flee. UN envoy Amir-Saeid Iravani condemned “the cowardly terrorist assassination of four diplomats of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” labelling it “a grave terrorist act and a serious breach of international law.”
Locals reeled from the shock. “This is not an area where you expect something like this to happen. Of course we’re scared,” said 47-year-old Yahya near a Starbucks. Car park worker Mousa Khodour shielded his four children from the blast, while his cousin nursed shrapnel wounds.