Israel strikes Beirut hotel as Lebanon says war toll nears 400

BEIRUT: Israel struck a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, the first attack on the city centre since the start of the new war with Hezbollah, as Lebanon said nearly 400 people were killed over the past week.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday, when Iran-backed group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.

Israel, which has kept up strikes targeting Hezbollah despite a 2024 ceasefire, launched multiple waves of strikes this week across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas.

Hezbollah said on Sunday that it repeatedly targeted northern Israel, including attacking a naval base in Haifa and sending a swarm of drones towards the city of Nahariya.

Israel’s military, meanwhile, said that two of its soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon, the first of its troops to have died since the latest offensive began on March 2. It also reiterated its call for Lebanese residents to leave the area south of the Litani River, which covers many hundreds of square kilometres (miles).