Israeli Airstrikes Kill At Least 182 In Lebanon, Hours After Iran War Ceasefire

BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli attacks intensified Commercial and residential areas in the center of Beirut On Wednesday, hours after a ceasefire was declared without any warning. US-Israel’s war with Iran. Lebanon said at least 182 people were killed and hundreds injured, making it the deadliest day in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

US President Donald Trump He told PBS News Hour: Lebanon It was not included in the agreement due to the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. When asked about Israel’s latest attacks, he said: “This is a separate conflict.” Israel had said that the agreement did not cover its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah, but Iran and mediator Pakistan stated that this was the case.

A brief sense of relief among the Lebanese following the ceasefire turned into panic as the Israeli army said it hit more than 100 Hezbollah targets in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley in 10 minutes in what it described as the largest coordinated attack in the current war.

Black smoke rose in many parts of the coastal capital. many people were displaced by war They took refuge. The explosions punctuated the honking of traffic on a brisk, blue-sky afternoon. Ambulances rushed towards the open flames. Apartment buildings were hit.

Associated Press journalists saw burned bodies in vehicles and on the ground in the central Corniche al Mazraa neighborhood, a commercial and residential district that is one of Beirut’s busiest intersections. Rescuers used forklifts to remove the smoldering debris and sift through the rubble to find survivors.

In the first few hours after the attacks, there was no sign of Hezbollah launching an attack on Israel.

Iran announced later Wednesday that it was once again halting the movement of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in response to attacks on Lebanon, according to reports in the country’s state media.

The center of Beirut has been targeted before, but never so many attacks at the same time and in the middle of the day. Israel had rarely struck central Beirut since the outbreak of the Israel-Hezbollah war on March 2, but had regularly struck southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Haneed Sayed condemned Israel’s wide-ranging attacks in an interview with The Associated Press, calling it “a very dangerous turning point.”

“These hits are now in the heart of Beirut… Half of the sheltered (internally displaced) people are in this area of ​​Beirut,” he said, adding that he had just passed through the hit areas.

He said the Lebanese government was ready to begin negotiations with Israel for an end to hostilities; This was an offer made earlier by the Lebanese president. Israel did not respond. “Calls and efforts are being made as we speak,” Sayed said.

In a statement, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of escalating tensions at a moment when Lebanese officials were trying to negotiate a solution and striking civilian areas “in complete disregard of the principles of international law and international humanitarian law – principles that it has never respected in the first place.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described Israel’s attacks as “barbaric”. The Lebanese Ministry of Health said that in addition to the 182 people killed in the attacks, at least 890 people were injured. A total of 1,739 people have been killed and 5,873 injured in just over five weeks since the war began in Lebanon.

The Israeli military said it targeted missile launchers, command centers and intelligence infrastructure. He accused Hezbollah fighters of trying to “incorporate” non-Shiite Muslim areas beyond their traditional strongholds.

Residents and local officials denied that the buildings hit were military areas.

“Look at these crimes,” Beirut city council member Mohammed Balouza said at the strike scene on the Corniche al Mazraa. The apartment building behind a popular shop selling nuts and dried fruit was hit. “This is a residential area. There is nothing (military) here.”

As the smoke rose on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem that “his turn will come.” in 2024 Israel killed former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallahby air strike.

Katz called Wednesday’s attacks the biggest blow to Hezbollah since the attack that caused hundreds of members’ pagers to communicate. explode almost simultaneously In September 2024.

Before the new attacks, a Hezbollah official told the AP that the group had given mediators a chance to broker a ceasefire in Lebanon, but “we did not declare our commitment to the ceasefire because the Israelis did not comply.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

The Hezbollah official said the group would not accept a return to the pre-March 2 status quo, in which Israel launched almost daily attacks on Lebanon despite a ceasefire that has been nominally in effect since the last Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November 2024.

“We will not accept that the Israelis continue to behave the way they did before this war regarding attacks,” he said.

Hezbollah fired missiles at the border days after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, sparking a regional war. Israel responded with large-scale bombardment of Lebanon. land invasion.

Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said that the attacks were aimed at protecting Israel’s northern residents who were under heavy fire.

The Israeli army announced that it killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters. More than 1 million people have been displaced in Lebanon.

Early Wednesday, after a ceasefire was declared in Iran and before Israel attacked, many displaced people sleeping in tents on the streets of Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon had begun packing their belongings in preparation to return to their homes.

Families in a large displacement camp on the Beirut coast later expressed confusion and despair.

“We can no longer bear sleeping in a tent, not taking a shower and the uncertainty,” said 35-year-old Fadi Zaydan. He and his family were preparing to return to the southern city of Nabatieh. Instead, they decided to wait things out in Sidon, a little closer to home.

Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre and AP journalists Hussein Mallah and Fadi Tawil in Beirut, Michelle Price in Washington and Melanie Lidman in Eilat, Israel, contributed to this report.