Geline Salac

Panic in Lebanon as Israel carries out most violent strikes on capital

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable fr-active" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zryLJPWnbaI?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli strikes on Lebanon Wednesday killed 182 people and wounded 890, according to an initial toll from authorities, with the capital Beirut hit by the most violent bombardment since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.</p><p>Israel announced Wednesday it did not consider Lebanon covered by the Iran-US truce announced overnight.</p><p>AFPTV&#x27;s live broadcast showed plumes of smoke rising over Beirut, while AFP journalists saw panic in the streets and buildings collapsed on their residents&#x27; heads without prior warning.</p><p>The health ministry reported 182 people killed and 890 wounded in the strikes, adding that the toll was not final.</p><p>After a series of simultaneous afternoon raids on neighborhoods in Beirut, Israel carried out evening strikes, including on a building in the Tallet El-Khayat area, which led, according to an AFP photographer, to the collapse of part of a residential building.</p><p>AFP&#x27;s photographer saw two people trapped on an upper floor while rescuers worked to reach them after part of the building had cracked.</p><p>Israel also struck Beirut&#x27;s southern suburbs late Wednesday, according to state media.</p><p>Israel&#x27;s defence minister said it had carried out an attack targeting Hezbollah members across Lebanon, calling it the largest blow against the group since a 2024 operation involving pager bombs.</p><p>Simultaneous strikes on Beirut came without warning, sending people on the street running and motorists honking their horns in an effort to clear the way for ambulances, according to AFP journalists.</p><p>&quot;I saw the blast, it was very strong, and there were children killed, some with their hands blown off,&quot; Yasser Abdallah, who works in an appliance store in central Beirut, told AFP.</p><p>One of the strikes hit Corniche al-Mazraa, one of the main roads in the capital, toppling a building and sending black smoke billowing into the sky as the rubble burned.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Right to respond -</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes in the country&#x27;s south, east and mountainous Aley region.</p><p>Among those killed in the strikes were two journalists: Suzanne Khalil of Al-Manar TV, affiliated with Hezbollah, and Ghada Dayekh of local radio station Sawt Al-Farah.</p><p>The Israeli strikes came as Hezbollah said it was close to a &quot;historic victory&quot; after the regional ceasefire announcement.</p><p>In a statement Wednesday, Hezbollah affirmed its &quot;natural and legal right to resist the occupation and respond to its aggression&quot;, although it has not announced any operations against Israel since the ceasefire between the US and Iran came into effect.</p><p>After Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel on March 2 in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran&#x27;s supreme leader, Israel has invaded southern Lebanon and launched massive air raids.</p><p>Israel on Wednesday renewed an evacuation order for an area more than 40 kilometres (25 miles) inside Lebanon, saying &quot;the battle in Lebanon is ongoing&quot;.</p><p>In spite of the evacuation order, a humanitarian convoy organised by a Catholic NGO delivered some 30 tonnes of aid to several Christian-majority villages in the south, according to an AFP reporter.</p><p>Israel targeted the last coastal bridge linking thousands of people still in the southern city of Tyre to Beirut.</p><p>It is the seventh bridge over the Litani river, which divides southern Lebanon in two, that Israel has struck.</p><p>Israel&#x27;s attacks since the beginning of the war have killed more than 1,500 people and displaced over a million, according to Lebanese authorities.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Regional peace&#x27; -</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has acted as a mediator in the regional conflict, said the two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States applied &quot;everywhere including Lebanon&quot;.</p><p>But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said Lebanon was excluded, and a Lebanese official told AFP that authorities &quot;have not been informed&quot; of Lebanon being included in the truce.</p><p>White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said later Wednesday that Lebanon &quot;will continue to be discussed, I am sure, between the president and Prime Minister Netanyahu, the United States and Israel and all of the parties involved&quot;.</p><p>In a statement, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said &quot;the continued brutal Israeli shelling of Beirut, the mountain, the Beqaa and the south... confirms that Israel is pressing ahead with its aggression and dangerous escalation despite international efforts to contain tensions in the region&quot;.</p><p>Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called on the country&#x27;s friends to help put an end to Israeli attacks.</p><p>Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that &quot;the US must choose -- ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both&quot;.</p><p>&quot;The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.&quot;</p><p>nad-at-lar-ris/amj</p>

<p>Israeli strikes on Lebanon Wednesday killed 182 people and wounded 890, according to an initial toll from authorities, with the capital Beirut hit by the most violent bombardment since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.</p>

Israeli strikes on Lebanon Wednesday killed 182 people and wounded 890, according to an initial toll from authorities, with the capital Beirut hit by the most violent bombardment since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.