At least four people were killed when an Israeli strike hit an apartment in the Ramada hotel building in central Beirut early on Sunday, with Israel saying it targeted Iranian commanders operating in the Lebanese capital.
The attack marked the first Israeli strike to hit the heart of Beirut since Israel-Hezbollah hostilities resumed last week.
Ten people were also injured in the attack on Beirut's Raouche area, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement.
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.
The hotel was housing displaced people fleeing the war in southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs, and some were seen leaving the building for fear of further air strikes.
Last week, Israel said it had killed the commander of Iran's Quds Force in Lebanon, Daoud Ali Zadeh, in a strike in Tehran.
Lebanon was pulled into the widening US-Israel war with Iran on Monday after the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah fired rockets and drones into Israel. Israel responded with heavy strikes across southern and eastern Lebanon and near Beirut.
Rockets
The area along the Mediterranean coast is home to dozens of hotels, now overcrowded with displaced people who fled their homes elsewhere in Lebanon due to the ongoing fighting.
This is the second Israeli attack on a hotel in the Beirut area this week.
On Wednesday, an Israeli air strike hit a hotel in the predominantly Christian neighbourhood of Hazmieh outside Beirut, near the presidential palace and several government ministries and diplomatic missions.
AFPTV live footage from Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday also showed smoke following what appeared to be an air strike.
Hezbollah meanwhile claimed rocket attacks early Sunday targeting Israeli forces and a city across the border, "in response to the criminal Israeli aggression that affected dozens of Lebanese cities and towns", according to statements from the group.
Hezbollah also said its fighters were engaged in clashes with Israeli forces near the border town of Aitaroun.
Air raid sirens sounded in several areas of northern Israel, with no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)
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