Israel pounds Lebanon with heaviest airstrikes of the war

Hezbollah is likely to issue a statement outlining its formal position on the ceasefire and on Netanyahu’s assertion that Lebanon is not included, the three Lebanese sources said.

By Reuters and The Algemeiner

Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, even as the Iran-aligned terror group paused attacks on northern Israel and Israeli troops in Lebanon under a two-week US-Iran ceasefire.

Consecutive explosions shook Beirut, sending smoke billowing across the capital, as Israel’s military said it had launched the largest coordinated strike of the war.

More than 100 Hezbollah command centers and military sites were targeted in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon, the IDF said.

The strikes killed dozens of terrorists and wounded hundreds, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said overnight that the ceasefire suspending the six-week-old US-Israeli war against Iran did not apply to Lebanon, and the Israeli military said operations against Hezbollah there would continue.

Lebanon’s state news agency NNA had reported continued Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon earlier in the day.

An Israeli strike on the southern city of Sidon killed eight terrorists and wounded 22 others, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Hezbollah stopped attacking Israeli targets early on Wednesday, three Lebanese sources close to the terror group told Reuters.

The terror group’s last public statement on its military activity was posted at 1 a.m. (2200 GMT Tuesday), saying it had targeted Israeli troops inside Lebanon on Tuesday evening.

Then terror group is likely to issue a statement outlining its formal position on the ceasefire and on Netanyahu’s assertion that Lebanon is not included, the three Lebanese sources said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the situation in Lebanon, a former French protectorate, remained critical and called for Lebanon to be included in the deal.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, welcoming the US-Iran ceasefire, said Beirut would continue its efforts to ensure that Lebanon was included in any lasting regional peace agreement.

“Hezbollah was informed that it is part of the ceasefire—so we abided by it, but Israel, as usual, has violated it and committed massacres all across Lebanon,” senior Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi told Reuters.

‘LEBANON CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE’

Most of Wednesday’s strikes were in civilian-populated areas, Israel’s military said. Hours before the strike, the military had issued warnings for some areas of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon.

No such warning was given for central Beirut, which was also hit.

Following the strikes, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed on X that Hezbollah had moved out of its traditional Shi’ite stronghold in southern Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood to religiously mixed areas of the city, including in the north.

Addressing Hezbollah, he said Israel’s military will “pursue you and act with great force against you wherever you are.”

More than 1,500 people have been killed in Israel’s air and ground campaign across Lebanon since March 2, when Hezbollah started firing rockets at Israel in solidarity with Tehran.

Israel ​has issued evacuation orders covering around 15 percent of Lebanese ​territory since then, mostly in the south and in suburbs south of Beirut.

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israel has also pledged to occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River as part ​of a “security zone” it says is intended to protect its northern residents.