Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict began last month, killing more than 250 people on Wednesday and wounding over 1,100, as a bitter dispute over whether Lebanon is covered by the US-Iran ceasefire threatened to unravel the fragile truce within hours of it being announced.
At least five consecutive strikes hit Beirut on Wednesday afternoon, sending columns of smoke over the capital as Israel’s military said it had launched the largest coordinated strike of the war. More than 100 Hezbollah command centres and military sites were targeted across Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon within ten minutes, the military said. The highest toll was in Beirut, where 91 people were killed. Lebanon’s civil defence service put the overall death toll at 254, with the health ministry reporting 182 dead and describing the figure as not final.
It was the deadliest single day of the conflict that erupted on 2 March, when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in support of Tehran following the US-Israeli attack on Iran two days earlier.
“The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. “Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief.“
Ceasefire row deepens
Hezbollah said it had halted attacks early on Wednesday after being told it was covered by the ceasefire, only to resume rocket fire on northern Israel after the strikes. “Hezbollah was informed that it is part of the ceasefire — so we abided by it, but Israel as usual has violated it and committed massacres all across Lebanon,” senior Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi told Reuters.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a ceasefire in Lebanon was an essential condition of Tehran’s agreement with Washington. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned they would deliver a “regret-inducing response” if attacks on Lebanon did not stop.
Israel and the United States maintained that Lebanon was never part of the deal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address that the military was continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Vice President JD Vance echoed that position, with Vance telling reporters in Budapest: “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key intermediary in the ceasefire talks, had said earlier that the truce would include Lebanon. A senior Lebanese official told Reuters that Lebanon had not taken part in any of the correspondence leading up to the agreement.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strikes. French President Emmanuel Macron told him he was ready to make a diplomatic push for Lebanon to be included in any ceasefire, according to Aoun.
Southern Lebanon cut off
Israel also destroyed the last remaining bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country on Wednesday, a senior Lebanese security source said. An Israeli military spokesperson said the area south of the Litani River was now “disconnected from Lebanon.”
Most of Wednesday’s strikes hit civilian-populated areas, Israel’s military acknowledged. Warnings were issued for parts of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon but not for central Beirut, which was also struck. Israel has now issued evacuation orders covering around 15% of Lebanese territory, displacing more than 1.2 million people.
In a western Beirut neighbourhood hit by one of the strikes, Naim Chebbo, 51, swept up shards of glass blown from his window frames. “Tonight I’m not going to sleep because I’m going to be afraid that it’s happening again. I’m living a nightmare,” he said.
Outside a school sheltering displaced people in the southern city of Sidon, families had loaded pillows and blankets onto cars in anticipation of being able to return home before the strikes began. Ahmed Harm, 54, displaced from Beirut’s southern suburbs, voiced a plea shared by many. “Hopefully a ceasefire will be reached,” he said. “Lebanon can’t take it anymore.”
(Reuters)
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