Israel carried out strikes in central Beirut on Wednesday hours after a ceasefire was announced in its war with Iran, and Lebanon said the bombardment killed at least 182 people and left hundreds wounded. In Beirut, apartment buildings were hit and thick black smoke rose over parts of the seaside capital as ambulances rushed toward fires and rescuers cleared debris in damaged streets.
The attacks came after an initial sense of relief among some displaced people that a ceasefire might hold. The relief proved brief, and residents said the strikes shattered the calm that followed the ceasefire announcement, with traffic honking interrupted by explosions.
Lebanon’s Minister of Social Affairs Haneen Sayed said the strikes landed in areas where many displaced people have taken shelter. She condemned the scale of Israel’s attacks in an interview with The Associated Press, calling them a “very dangerous turning point,” and said she had driven past parts of the neighborhoods hit.
Sayed said Lebanon’s government was ready to enter negotiations with Israel to end hostilities, a step Lebanon’s president had previously proposed. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of escalating at a time when Lebanese officials were seeking to negotiate, and said the strikes showed “utter disregard for the principles of international law and international humanitarian law,” which he said Israel has never respected.
Israel’s military said it targeted missile launchers, command centers and intelligence infrastructure, and blamed Hezbollah for trying to operate in areas outside its traditional strongholds. Residents and local officials disputed Israel’s characterization, describing the damaged buildings in Beirut’s Corniche al Mazraa neighborhood as residential rather than military sites.
U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the ceasefire issue on PBS NewsHour, saying Lebanon was not included in the deal because of Hezbollah, which he described as the Lebanese militant group. When asked about Israel’s latest strikes, Trump said, “That’s a separate skirmish,” while Israeli officials had said the Iran ceasefire did not extend to the conflict with Hezbollah; Iran and Pakistan, as mediators, said it did.
As the smoke rose, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem that “his turn will come,” recalling that Israel killed Hezbollah’s previous leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in 2024 with an airstrike. Katz said Wednesday’s strikes were the largest blow against Hezbollah since the attack in September 2024 that used pagers carried by hundreds of Hezbollah members.
A Hezbollah official, speaking anonymously to The Associated Press because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the group had been giving mediators a chance to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon but added that Hezbollah had “not announced our adherence to the ceasefire since the Israelis are not adhering to it.” The official said Hezbollah would not accept a return to the pre-March 2 status quo, when Israel carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon despite a ceasefire that had been in place nominally since the last full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November 2024.
Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt Gen. Eyal Zamir, said the attacks were intended to protect Israel’s northern residents, who have faced heavy fire. Before the new strikes, some displaced people had begun packing in preparation to return home after the Iran ceasefire announcement, including people sleeping in tents in Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, but later, families in displacement camps expressed confusion and despair.
Iran said later Wednesday that it was again halting the movement of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, according to its state-run media. The Associated Press reported seeing charred bodies in vehicles and on the ground at one of Beirut’s busiest intersections, and described rescue workers using forklifts to remove smoldering debris and search for survivors amid the destruction.