Israeli strikes pummel Lebanon, killing 250 in deadliest day of war

Highlights:
- Israel launches heaviest Lebanon strikes despite Iran ceasefire
- Hezbollah responds by firing rockets into Israel for first time
since ceasefire took effect
- Lebanon's Aoun says he and France's Macron urge Lebanon's
inclusion in ceasefire
Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since
the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, killing more than 250 people
yesterday, as the Iran-aligned group resumed rocket attacks on northern Israel
after a brief pause under the two-week US-Iran ceasefire.
The strikes raised questions about
regional truce efforts, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian saying a
ceasefire in Lebanon was an essential condition of his country's agreement with
the US.
On Wednesday afternoon, at least five consecutive strikes
rocked the capital Beirut, sending columns of smoke into the sky 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 in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and
southern Lebanon within ten minutes, it said.
A total of 254 people were killed
and over 1,100 wounded across Lebanon, the country's civil defence service
said.
The highest toll was in Beirut,
where 91 people were killed. The health ministry gave a toll of 182 dead across
the country and said it was not a final figure.
Hezbollah said early on Thursday it fired rockets at the small kibbutz of
Manara, citing what it described as Israel's ceasefire violations.
"This response will continue
until the Israeli-American aggression against our country and our people
ceases," the group said in a statement.
It was the deadliest day of the war
that erupted on 2 March, when Hezbollah fired into Israel in support of Tehran
after the US-Israeli attack on Iran two days earlier. Israel launched a
fully-fledged air and ground campaign in response.
Reuters reporters saw civil defence
workers guiding an older woman onto a crane to evacuate her from a building in
a western part of Beirut.
Half of the building had been
sheared off in an Israeli strike, leaving residents on the upper floors
trapped.
Earlier, Reuters reporters saw
people on motorcycles picking up the wounded and transporting them to
hospitals because there were not enough ambulances to get to them in time. One
of Beirut's biggest medical facilities said it needed donations of all blood
types.
"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."
Late on Wednesday evening, a strike
hit Beirut's southern suburbs, according to a Reuters live broadcast.
Israel, US say Lebanon not included in truce
In a televised address on Wednesday
evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lebanon was not part of
the ceasefire with Iran and the Israeli military was continuing to strike
Hezbollah with force.
White House press secretary
Karoline Leavitt and Vice President JD Vance also said on Wednesday that
Lebanon was not included in the truce.
"I think this comes from a
legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire
included Lebanon, and it just didn't," Vance told reporters in Budapest.
Earlier, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key
intermediary in the U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks, had said the truce would include
Lebanon.
In a statement, Hezbollah
condemned what it called Israel's "barbaric aggression" and said the
attacks underscored its right to respond.
Hezbollah had stopped attacking
Israeli targets early on Wednesday, three Lebanese sources close to the group
told Reuters.
"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.
Another Hezbollah lawmaker, Hassan
Fadlallah, told Reuters there would be "repercussions for the entire
agreement" if Israel's attacks continued.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned
the US and Israel it would deliver a "regret-inducing response" if
attacks on Lebanon did not stop.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun
condemned Wednesday's strikes and said French President Emmanuel Macron had
told him he was ready to make a diplomatic push for Lebanon to be included in
any ceasefire.
A senior Lebanese official had
earlier told Reuters that Lebanon had not taken part in correspondence leading
up to the ceasefire.
'I'm living a nightmare'
Most of Wednesday's strikes were in
civilian-populated areas, Israel's military said. Hours before the attacks, the
military had issued warnings for some areas of southern Beirut and southern
Lebanon. No such warning was given for central Beirut, which was also hit.
Following the strikes, Israeli
military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X that Hezbollah had moved out
of its traditional Shi'ite stronghold in southern Beirut's Dahiyeh
neighbourhood to religiously mixed areas elsewhere.
He said Israel's military would
pursue Hezbollah wherever it was.
The Israeli military said it
attacked a Hezbollah commander in Beirut, without providing further details.
In a western neighbourhood of
Beirut that was hit by a strike, Naim Chebbo, 51, swept up shards of glass that
had been blown out of the window frames by the force of the blast.
"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 told Reuters.
'Lebanon can't take it anymore'
Israel also struck the last
remaining bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country on
Wednesday, a senior Lebanese security source said. The bridge ran over the
Litani River, which runs about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the border
with Israel.
An Israeli military spokesperson
said the area south of the Litani was "disconnected from Lebanon."
Israel has said it intends to
occupy the area as a "buffer zone." It has struck hospitals and power
stations there, and thousands of Lebanese civilians still living there say they
have been struggling with a shortage of food and medicine.
Israel has issued evacuation orders
covering around 15% of Lebanese territory, mostly in the south and in suburbs
south of Beirut. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced.
Many had hoped a ceasefire could
allow them to return. Outside a school sheltering displaced people in the
southern Lebanese city of Sidon, people had piled their pillows and blankets
onto cars, thinking they could return home.
Before Wednesday's attacks, more
than 1,500 had been killed in Israel's air and ground campaign across Lebanon,
including more than 130 children.
"Hopefully a ceasefire will be
reached," said Ahmed Harm, a 54-year-old man displaced from Beirut's
southern suburbs. "Lebanon can't take it anymore."
















