Israeli army widens attacks, strikes Mount Lebanon and Baabda: What happened overnight

BEIRUT — On the third day of its escalation in Lebanon, the Israeli army expanded its overnight strikes from Tuesday to Wednesday in Lebanon, hitting Mount Lebanon and Baabda for the first time.

The strikes hit Aley, Chouf, and a hotel in Baabda, less than two kilometers from the presidential palace, and killed over eight people, according to the Health Ministry. In Baalbeck, an Israeli strike destroyed a four story building killing at least six, as three people remain trapped under the rubble.

Six killed and eight wounded in Aramoun and Saadiyat

• Israeli strikes targeted Aramoun (Aley), and Saadiyat (Chouf), shortly before 1 a.m.
• According to local media, the person targeted in Aramoun was a leader of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, an Islamist movement allied with Hezbollah whose headquarters had been targeted a few hours earlier in Saida. The strike hit a building near Lebanese Army barracks and electricity offices, near Bayader Khaldeh.
• According to the Health Ministry, the two attacks killed six people — including a displaced resident from Arab Salim (Nabatieh) in Aramoun — and injured eight.

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A woman seriously wounded in Hazmieh

• Around 4 a.m., the Israeli army launched a strike on Baabda, southeast of Beirut, less than two kilometers from the presidential palace.
• The strike occurred without prior warning and hit the Comfort Hotel in the residential Brasilia neighborhood.
• This attack, unprecedented in the area, seriously wounded a 34-year-old woman who had worked at the establishment for 10 years and is originally from Aley, according to L'Orient Today's reporter on site.
• Between 10 and 15 clients were staying in the hotel, all of them displaced, according to the owner, George Shibli.
• The building sustained major damage, and the attack sparked panic among neighborhood residents.
• The army remains deployed, as do the Internal Security Forces, intelligence services and State Security.
• While some media reported a Hezbollah deployment had established a security perimeter around the targeted building, a soldier present on site, the hotel’s owner and a witness denied these reports to L'Orient Today's reporters.
• The hotel owner also denied overnight press reports claiming that an Iranian official — allegedly the target — was present, hours after Israel issued a 24-hour ultimatum for Iranian diplomats and officials to leave Lebanon.

Until now, Israeli strikes had mainly targeted southern Lebanon, the Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburbs.