An Israeli airstrike targeted a hotel apartment in the Raoucheh area in the heart of Beirut late at night, using a guided missile, raising the possibility that the attack may have been an assassination operation.

According to a statement issued by the Emergency Operations Center of the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the strike resulted, in a preliminary toll, in four people killed and ten others wounded.

The Israeli army announced that it had carried out “a precise and targeted strike against key commanders of the Lebanon Corps affiliated with the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who were operating in Beirut.”

It added that “commanders of the Lebanon Corps within the Quds Force had been advancing plans against Israel and its citizens from inside Lebanese territory, in parallel with the activities of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Iran.”

The Israeli military further said that steps had been taken before carrying out the strike to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties, including the use of precision-guided munitions and aerial surveillance.

The statement concluded: “We will not allow Iranian elements to entrench themselves in Lebanese territory, and we will continue to precisely target and eliminate leaders of the Iranian regime wherever they operate.”

The attached video shows scenes from the aftermath of the strike that hit one of the rooms at the Ramada Hotel in Raoucheh.