Israel pounds Lebanon with heaviest airstrikes of the war as Hezbollah pauses attacks

Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, even as the Iran-aligned 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 centres and military sites were targeted in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, it said.

Today's (8 April) strikes killed dozens and wounded hundreds, according to Lebanon's health ministry. In Beirut, bloodied and injured people abandoned cars in traffic and headed to the nearest hospital, Reuters witnesses said.

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.

"The battle in Lebanon continues, and the ceasefire does not include Lebanon," Israel's military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement. Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel had inflicted the biggest concentrated blow to ⁠Hezbollah since a September 2024 operation that caused thousands of the group's pagers to explode.

Israel's position contradicted comments by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key intermediary in the US-Iran ceasefire talks, who had said the truce would include Lebanon.

Earlier on Wednesday, Lebanon's state news agency NNA reported continued Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon, including artillery shelling and a dawn airstrike on a building near a hospital that killed four people. An Israeli strike on the southern city of Sidon killed eight people and wounded 22 others, Lebanon's health ministry said.

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

The 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.

'LEBANON CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE'

Israel has issued evacuation orders covering around 15% of Lebanese territory since March 2, mostly in the ‌south and in ⁠suburbs south of Beirut. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced, the authorities say.

"Hopefully a ceasefire will be reached," said Ahmed Harm, a 54-year-old man displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs. "Lebanon can't take it anymore. The country is collapsing economically, and everything is collapsing."

Outside a school sheltering displaced people in Sidon, pillows and blankets were piled onto cars as some families held out hope of returning home soon. On an astroturf football field, one family had packed plastic bags with clothes, pots and pans, towels, sheets and blankets.

"We're just waiting for the official decision from the top, so we can go back," said Samar al-Saibany, who was displaced from a village in ⁠the south.

Local mayor Mustafa al-Zein said more than 28,000 people were sheltering in the area as of Tuesday night. He cautioned residents against trying to return before an official signal.

"In the south, give someone a signal to return, and he'll return," Zein said.

URGENT WARNINGS

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.

A senior Lebanese official told Reuters that Lebanon had received no guarantees or other information on its inclusion in the two-week ceasefire, and had not been involved in talks.

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.

More than 1,500 people have been killed in ⁠Israel's air and ground campaign across Lebanon, including more than 130 children and more than 100 women, since March 2 when Hezbollah started firing rockets at Israel in solidarity with Tehran.

By late March, more than 400 Hezbollah fighters had been killed, sources told Reuters. Israel says 10 of its soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon in the same period.

Israel has 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.