Israel has launched the largest wave of strikes on Lebanon in the war so far, pounding 100 locations across the country in just 10 minutes and crushing hopes of a ceasefire.
Just hours after Pakistan announced a two-week truce in the region between the US and Iran, massive explosions rained down on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, eviscerating buildings and sending towering clouds of smoke across the skyline.
Witnesses told The Independent civilians, covered in blood, were shuttled to hospital on the back of motorcycles, while veteran surgeons described the scenes as “an absolute massacre”.
Strikes also pounded the Bekaa Valley to the east and the already devastated south of the country, “killing dozens and injuring hundreds” according to the Lebanese health ministry, that warned the death toll would rise as they were still pulling bodies out of the rubble.
Defence minister Israel Katz said Israel had inflicted the largest concentrated blow to Hezbollah since a September 2024 operation that caused thousands of the group’s pagers to explode.
Israeli military spokesperson LTC Nadav Shoshani said they had struck 100 targets – including Hezbollah and Iranian military infrastructure- across over the Bekaa Valley, southern Lebanon and different parts of Beirut.
But many of the strikes hit neighbourhoods not affiliated with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and were densely packed civilian areas.
Shoshani claimed the operation was the result of “meticulous planning over weeks” and that among the areas hit were Hezbollah headquarters, its firepower and its aerial units.
Civilians in the capital said busy residential neighbourhoods, not in zones affiliated with the Iran-backed group, had been hit. Medics said hospitals were overwhelmed by the wounded.
Speaking from a hospital in Beirut, Ghassan Abu Sittah, renowned British-Palestinian surgeon who has treated the wounded in Gaza and Lebanon, called Israel’s unprecedented bombardment “an absolute massacre”.
“Emergency departments have been flooded across the whole of Beirut. We had the first wave and now we’re getting the second wave of people being dug out of the rubble. It’s horrendous.
“A lot of people are being brought in dead, a lot of children with severe injuries,” he told The Independent. “It’s an absolute massacre and it happened almost simultaneously,” he added.
Local journalist Rana Najjar told The Independent that people were screaming and rushing into the streets as airstrikes rocked in the capital.
“People started screaming and running out of shops, rushing into the streets,” she said. “In less than 30 seconds, the streets were transformed into an earthquake zone. Ambulances were everywhere.
“The wounded were running on their own to safe areas or to hospitals. I stopped with my daughter and my brother’s children, my mind frozen, and I didn’t know what to do. Bombing was happening all over Beirut, every area was being targeted.
“The scene was terrifying, reminding me of what I experienced on August 4, 2020, the day of the port explosion. Everyone was running in fear. No one understood what was happening.
“This is an earthquake unlike anything we’ve seen in any war, not even in 2004 or 2006. People had woken up to good news of a ceasefire, but Israel, as usual, doesn’t abide by international resolutions or negotiations.”
Just hours before, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who brokered the US-Iran ceasefire talks, indicated the truce would extend to the conflict between Israel and Lebanon.
This was later echoed in Hezbollah’s own statement, which claimed the group were “on the threshold of a major historic victory”.
But this was contradicted shortly afterwards by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the ceasefire that suspended the six-week US-Israeli war against Iran did not apply to Lebanon, and the Israeli military said operations against Hezbollah there would continue.
Speaking to The Independent, Israeli military spokesperson LTC Nadav Shoshani said the military was still following those orders.
“In Lebanon we are continuing our operations against Hezbollah. And that’s the current situation right now, in the current guidance we’ve received [from the political echelon],” he said.
“We have different plans for different scenarios. As of now, as I said, the mission remains to push back this organisation and keep degrading it.”
A source briefed on the Israeli position later told The Independent there was no intention of Lebanon being part of a peace deal.
“We reached most of our targets in Iran. We caused a lot of damage. We set Iran back several years. But now is the time to focus on Hezbollah,” the source said, adding that Israelis are “disappointed” with the ceasefires.
“Israel cannot run two huge battlegrounds simultaneously… It would be very hard for Netanyahu to sell a ceasefire with Lebanon at the moment. The entire country just wants the job done.”
About the Author
