Surveillance cameras recorded people crowding together, trying to take cover under a table inside a shop. Scenes of panic unfolded as they attempted to flee the blasts and shrapnel, the deafening force driving them toward walls and under shelves in a desperate effort to shield themselves from the pressure of the explosions. Cries rose from beneath the rubble, where rescue attempts turned into a race against time. In the streets: burned cars, collapsed buildings, and bodies searched for by relatives through the dust. Children were missing under the debris, and others were pulled out in pieces.
An entire city appeared to be under bombardment in broad daylight, its residents watching, unable to comprehend how they had suddenly found themselves in the heart of this hell.
A little girl was walking beside her father on what she thought was a beautiful sunny day, only to find missiles falling around her. As she filmed, she screamed: “What is this, Dad?”
What happened on Black Wednesday was not a conventional Israeli military escalation, but an unprecedented, full-scale massacre. More than one hundred airstrikes within minutes, hundreds of victims and wounded, and buildings leveled in the central neighborhoods of Beirut. Hospitals issued urgent calls for blood donations, while the Ministry of Public Health urged citizens to “clear the roads” so ambulances could reach the injured.
The Ministry of Public Health called for roads to be cleared after ambulances were unable to reach the injured amid rubble, congestion, and chaos. The scene resembled a total collapse of even the most basic forms of civilian protection in wartime.
Israel carried out its largest attack on Lebanon since the start of its war with Hezbollah, killing at least 254 people and injuring 837 others within minutes, in what is believed to be one of the most violent assaults in the history of its wars and repeated massacres against Lebanon.
Israeli warplanes, without warning, flattened several buildings in central Beirut, filling the sky with smoke, while the Israeli Defense Minister described the attack as a “surprise strike” targeting Hezbollah.
Is Lebanon included in the ceasefire or not?
Since early Wednesday morning, confusion has prevailed. Is Lebanon part of the ceasefire, as announced by Iran and the Pakistani mediator, or not, as Israel insists?
The reality on the ground confirmed that Lebanon is outside the ceasefire, a position adopted by Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office stated that the two-week ceasefire in the Middle East does not include Lebanon, contradicting the Pakistani mediator’s statement. After initial silence, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Lebanon is a “separate engagement” and not part of the agreement.
Iranian sources told the Tasnim News Agency that Iran is prepared to withdraw from the ceasefire agreement if “Israel continues to violate the truce in Lebanon.” The crisis has been discussed between the Iranian Foreign Minister and his Pakistani counterpart.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Minister stated that the Iranian and Lebanese fronts are separate, and that the objective is to “change the reality in Lebanon and remove threats to residents in the north.”
He also issued a direct threat to Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, stating that the group would “pay a very heavy price” for attacking Israel on behalf of Iran, adding that “Naïm Qassem’s personal turn will come as well.”
At the same time, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, hinted—amid the indiscriminate bombardment of Beirut and the South—that Israel could begin striking deeper targets inside the capital, after previously focusing on the southern suburbs. Adraee claimed that Hezbollah was “repositioning” in mixed neighborhoods, vowing to pursue its fighters wherever they are. This was widely seen as a warning of a potential expansion of Israeli targets into the heart of Beirut, which indeed happened yesterday.
Shortly after this statement, Israel destroyed another building in the Tallet El-Khayat area of Beirut, which had not previously been targeted in this war. The possibility of expanding strikes across all of Beirut sparked widespread panic among residents.
“Where can I go? All of Lebanon is being bombed. They’re done with Iran and now they want to start with us,” said one Beirut resident.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, described the scale of the strikes as “horrifying,” saying that this level of killing, just hours after a ceasefire announcement, is “hard to believe” and places immense pressure on a fragile peace that civilians desperately need.
The Red Cross also expressed its “shock at the scale of destruction and killing” in densely populated areas, adding that Lebanon has once again returned to “a state of panic and chaos.”
Up until the moment of these large-scale airstrikes and the massacres that followed, Hezbollah had not announced any attacks against Israel since the ceasefire was declared—an unprecedented development since the outbreak of the war on March 2.
The Pakistani Prime Minister had initially announced that Iran, the United States, and their allies had “agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon,” before it became clear that this was not the case.
Indicators suggested that the broader negotiations, mediated by Pakistan between the United States and Iran, concluded without Israel’s direct participation. U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of the decision before announcing the ceasefire.
Later, Netanyahu confirmed that Israel is prepared to continue confronting Iran if necessary, stating that it still has “objectives that have not yet been completed,” while the Israeli military said it remains committed to “disarming” Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The war, now in its fifth week, has pushed Lebanon to the brink of collapse. More than 1.1 million people have been forcibly displaced, many of them now living on the streets. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, more than 1,530 people have been killed and 4,812 injured as a result of Israeli strikes, figures recorded before the massacres of Black Wednesday.
