BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli airstrikes struck busy commercial and residential areas of central Beirut without warning Wednesday, hours after a ceasefire was declared in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Lebanon said it was the deadliest day of the Israel-Hezbollah war, with at least 182 people killed and hundreds wounded.
US President Donald Trump told PBS NewsHour that Lebanon was not included in the accord because of the militant group Hezbollah. “This is a separate clash,” he said when asked about Israel’s latest attack. Israel said the deal would not extend its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah, although Iran and mediator Pakistan said it would.
A momentary sense of relief among Lebanese after the ceasefire declaration turned to panic after what Israel’s military called the largest coordinated strike of the current war, hitting more than 100 Hezbollah targets in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley within 10 minutes.
Black smoke hangs over many parts of the coastal capital, where large numbers of people displaced by the war have taken refuge. The bombing interrupted the sound of traffic on a brisk, blue-sky afternoon. Ambulances rushed to the open fire. Apartment buildings were hit.
Associated Press reporters saw vehicles and charred bodies on the ground at one of Beirut’s busy intersections in the central Cornish Al Majra neighborhood, a mixed commercial and residential area. Using forklifts, rescue workers removed the smoldering wreckage and scavenged the debris for survivors.
In the first two hours after the attack, there was no indication that Hezbollah had launched an attack against Israel.
In response to the attack on Lebanon, Iran said later on Wednesday that it had stopped the movement of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the country’s state media reported.
A deadly midday barrage
Central Beirut has already been targeted, but not by so many strikes at once and in the middle of the day. Israel has rarely attacked central Beirut since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war on March 2 but has regularly struck southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Lebanon’s Minister of Social Affairs Haneed Saeed condemned Israel’s wide-ranging strike, calling it a “very dangerous turn.”
“These hits are now in the heart of Beirut … Half of the shelters (internally displaced people) are in Beirut in this area,” she said, adding that she recently drove through the affected areas.
She said the Lebanese government was ready to negotiate an end to hostilities with Israel, an offer previously made by the Lebanese president. Israel has not responded. “Calls and efforts are being made as we speak,” Syed said.
In a statement, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of “in no way honoring a moment when it struck civilian areas in total disregard for the principles of international law and international humanitarian law” as Lebanese officials sought to negotiate a solution.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the Israeli attack “barbaric”. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said that 182 people were killed and at least 890 were injured in the attack. A total of 1,739 people have been killed and 5,873 injured in just five weeks since the start of the war in Lebanon.
Israel’s military said it targeted missile launchers, command centers and intelligence infrastructure. It accused Hezbollah fighters of trying to “blend” into non-Shia Muslim areas outside their traditional strongholds.
Residents and local officials denied the damaged buildings were military sites.
“Look at these crimes,” Mohammed Balouza, a member of Beirut’s municipal council, said at the scene of the strike on the Corniche al-Majrah. An apartment building behind a popular shop selling nuts and dried fruits was hit. “This is a residential area. There is nothing (military) here.”
An Israeli warning and an insulting Hezbollah
As the smoke cleared Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Hezbollah leader Naim Qasim that “his turn will come.” In 2024, Israel killed former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike.
Katz said the biggest blow against Hezbollah came in September 2024, when pagers used by hundreds of its members were detonated almost simultaneously.
Before the new strikes, a Hezbollah official told the AP that the group was giving mediators a chance to secure a cease-fire in Lebanon, but “we have not announced that we will abide by the cease-fire because the Israelis have not followed it.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
Despite a nominal ceasefire since the end of the last full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war in November 2024, Hezbollah officials say the group will not accept a return to the status quo before March 2, after Israel conducts almost daily strikes in Lebanon.
“We will not accept that the Israelis continue to behave as they did before the war in terms of aggression,” he said.
Hezbollah fired cross-border missiles after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, triggering a regional war. Israel responded with widespread bombing and ground attacks in Lebanon.
The Israeli military chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said the strikes were aimed at protecting residents of Israel’s north, who have come under heavy fire.
The Israeli military says it has killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters. More than 1 million people have been displaced in Lebanon.
Early Wednesday, after the Iran ceasefire was announced and before Israel attacked, many displaced people sleeping in tents on the streets of the coastal cities of Beirut and Sidon began packing their belongings in preparation to return home.
Families in the sprawling displacement camp on Beirut’s waterfront later expressed confusion and despair.
“We can’t stand it anymore, sleeping in tents, not showering, the uncertainty,” said 35-year-old Fadi Zaydan. He and his parents had planned to return to the southern city of Nabatieh. Instead, they decided to wait things out a little closer to home, in Sidon.
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Associated Press writer Isabel Debray and AP reporters Hussein Mallah and Fadi Tawil in Beirut, Michelle Price in Washington and Melanie Lidman in Eilat, Israel, contributed to this report.
