Hundreds killed as Israel strikes Lebanon after truce declaration

International

A WAVE of Israeli airstrikes hit Lebanon just hours after a ceasefire was believed to be in effect, killing at least 303 people and injuring 1,150 others, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The strikes came shortly after Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire to halt the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

However, Israeli authorities later clarified that the ceasefire did not include Lebanon, a report by BBC said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the fighting there as “a separate skirmish.”

At around 14:00 local time in Beirut on April 8, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched what it called “the largest co-ordinated strike across Lebanon since the start of Operation Roaring Lion.”

The military said it had targeted “100+ Hezbollah headquarters, military arrays, & command-and-control centres in Beirut, Bekaa and southern Lebanon.”

The bombardment struck densely populated areas, including central Beirut, as well as regions such as the Bekaa Valley, Nabatieh, Sidon, and Tyre. Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun condemned the attacks, calling them a “massacre.”

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the strikes as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire and warned that such actions could make negotiations “meaningless.”

The ceasefire had been announced by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who said the US and its allies “have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere.”

However, this interpretation was not shared by Israel and its allies.

Search and rescue operations continue across multiple sites, including residential areas where entire buildings have collapsed. Civil defense workers, exhausted after weeks of sustained attacks, continue to recover victims as families search for missing loved ones. (Samantha Faye Alcoma, CTU-TC BAEL-ELSD Intern)