Israel has carried out a large wave of air strikes across Lebanon, which killed and wounded hundreds of people, while officials say the war against the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah continues despite a ceasefire in Iran.
Israel described it as the largest wave of air strikes in this conflict, hitting more than 100 of what it called Hezbollah command centres and military sites in 10 minutes.
The southern suburbs of Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley were all targeted.
The Lebanese health ministry said at least 182 people had been killed, a number that is likely to rise, and 890 wounded.
At the site of the largest air strike on Beirut, hours later, emergency workers were still searching the damaged buildings. Found amid the rubble, glimpses of interrupted lives: pictures of smiling families, pieces of clothing, school homework that was left unfinished.
Abdelkader Mahfouz was visiting his brother who had been wounded.
“There was a lot of body parts here. Only people are getting harmed. What should the people do. We can’t do anything,” he told the BBC.
The attacks happened after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denied the assertion by Pakistan, which had mediated the deal between the US and Iran, that the ceasefire covered the conflict in Lebanon.
In Washington, US President Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt also said Lebanon was not part of the deal.
Hezbollah, which has not claimed any attack since the deal was announced, said the group had the right to respond and warned displaced families to wait for a formal ceasefire announcement before trying to return home.
The Lebanese presidency said it would continue “efforts to include Lebanon in regional peace”.
The latest escalation in the decades-long conflict between Hezbollah and Israel erupted when the group fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening stages of the war, and in response to the near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon that have continued despite a ceasefire, which was agreed in November 2024.
More than 1,700 people have been killed, including at least 130 children, so far as a result of the war, the Lebanese health ministry says, without distinguishing combatants from civilians.
Israel says it has killed around 1,100 Hezbollah fighters.
Over 1.2 million people have been displaced, or one in five of the population, most of them from Shia Muslim communities.
Villages near the border have been destroyed, as invading Israeli troops aim to create what the Israeli authorities call a security buffer zone, to destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure and push its fighters away. This has raised concerns that some areas may be occupied even after the end of the war, and that many residents may never be able to return.
Israeli officials had indicated their intention to continue with their campaign in Lebanon even if there was a deal with Iran. But in recent days military sources quoted by Israeli media suggested the army had no intention to advance further in their invasion, and acknowledged that they would not be able to disarm Hezbollah by force.
Observers have expressed surprise with Hezbollah’s military capabilities in this conflict, as it was widely believed the group had been severely weakened in their last war. The group has frequently launched rockets and drones into northern Israel but confronted Israeli troops on the ground in southern Lebanon.
In Lebanon, however, Hezbollah has faced strong criticism as many blame it for dragging the country into an unwanted war and of defending the interests of its Iranian patron. But the group still enjoys significant support among Lebanese Shia.
The displacement crisis triggered by the war has put further pressure on the crisis-hit country. Schools that have been turned into shelters are full, and many are sleeping in improvised tents in public spaces and even in cars. The arrival of families to other communities has led to a rise in sectarian tensions, with people fearing that they too could become the target of Israeli attacks.
After the ceasefire deal in 2024, the Lebanese government announced a plan to disarm Hezbollah, which was created in the 1980s in response to Israel’s occupation of Lebanon during the 15-year Lebanese civil war. But, so far, the group has refused to discuss the future of its weapons.
President Joseph Aoun, a former army chief, had ruled out using force, warning that this could exacerbate divisions and lead to violence. Reacting to the latest escalation, his government made the historic announcement that it was open to negotiate directly with Israel – the countries do not have diplomatic relations. But, Israel, so far, has ignored the offer.
Source: BBC
-- Agencies
