Lebanese PM declares day of mourning after ‘unprecedented’ wave of IDF strikes

Lebanon says 182 dead, as IDF says it targeted ‘hundreds’ of Hezbollah operatives; Israel told residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to leave, but strikes in city’s center came without warning

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam declared Thursday a national day of mourning after Israeli strikes shook the country and killed some 182 people, according to a toll from the country’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

In a statement, the prime minister’s office said Thursday would be “a national day of mourning for the martyrs and wounded of the Israeli attacks that targeted hundreds of innocent, defenseless civilians,” ordering the closure of public administrations and the lowering of flags.

Salam’s office said he was engaged in diplomatic outreach “to mobilize all of Lebanon’s political and diplomatic resources to stop the Israeli killing machine.”

Around 2 p.m. local time, a series of Israeli strikes slammed into the Lebanese capital, triggering scenes of panic.

The Israel Defense Forces had issued evacuation warnings for civilians ahead of strikes in southern Lebanon and in Beirut’s southern suburbs, but attacks in other parts of the capital came without warning.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the wave of strikes targeted “hundreds of Hezbollah operatives.”

Among the targets, the IDF said, were Hezbollah command centers and other military infrastructure, including intelligence headquarters and offices used by the terror group to plan attacks on IDF troops and Israeli civilians; infrastructure of Hezbollah’s rocket and naval units; and assets of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force and aerial unit.

The attacks came the day after a ceasefire was announced between the United States and Iran, on whose behalf the Hezbollah terror group, an Iranian proxy, resumed its attacks against Israel on March 2. Since that time, Israel has carried out intensive airstrikes and launched ground operations in south Lebanon. Hezbollah has fired between dozens and hundreds of rockets daily at Israel’s north and at troops operating in southern Lebanon.

Iran and Hezbollah claimed the truce agreed this week applied to Lebanon as well, but the US and Israel rejected this assertion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF have said the campaign to push  Hezbollah back and establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to protect Israel’s north continues.

‘People started running left and right, smoke was billowing’

Ali Younes, who was waiting for his wife near the central Corniche al-Mazraa area in Beirut when the area was targeted by a strike on Wednesday, said: “People started running left and right, and smoke was billowing.”

An AFP journalist saw thick black smoke rise from a building completely blown apart amid the stench of gunpowder.

Firefighters worked to extinguish the blazes in the still-smoldering rubble, while rescue workers labored to pull victims from the debris and bulldozers tried to clear a path.

“We were at work, we had about eight customers and we heard four blasts one after another,” Hassan al-Sayed, the owner of a hair salon across the street, told AFP.

“The front of my shop was shattered,” he added, standing on a sidewalk covered in broken glass.

In a western neighborhood of Beirut that was hit by a strike, Naim Chebbo, 51, swept up shards of glass that had been blown out of the window frames by the force of the blast.

“Tonight I’m not going to sleep because I’m going to be afraid that it’s happening again. I’m living a nightmare,” he told Reuters.

The Red Cross said it was “outraged by the devastating death and destruction.”

“People across Lebanon were holding their breath for a ceasefire agreement, but a wave of deadly strikes plunged the country into panic and chaos,” said Agnes Dhur, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Lebanon.

“Many who had begun thinking of the moment when they might return to their homes have been rushing to streets and hospitals, searching for missing loved ones or seeking a safety that feels increasingly out of reach.”

Across the country, the Lebanese Red Cross sent 100 ambulances to evacuate the dead and transport the wounded to hospitals, the ICRC said.

Already overwhelmed medical facilities were having to deal with the influx of casualties, while some people remained trapped under the rubble, it added.

“Any comprehensive agreement for the region must consider the safety, protection and dignity of civilians in Lebanon,” the Geneva-based ICRC said. “After more than five weeks of hostilities, people urgently need respite from the violence.”

Israel has stressed that the ceasefire in Iran is disconnected from Lebanon, and that it will not halt its attacks until the threat posed by the Hezbollah terror group is dealt with.

The health ministry called on residents to urgently clear the roads for ambulances, saying: “The traffic jams caused by the unprecedented wave of strikes, in both number and intensity, carried out by Israel, are hampering rescue operations.”

Outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center, one of the capital’s main hospitals, an AFP journalist saw a stream of ambulances.

Relatives of the wounded gathered at the entrance to the emergency department, where a woman wept, leaning on a young man.

“My mother-in-law is dead, my brother-in-law’s wife too, and their son,” said a man who did not want to give his name, adding that they all lived in the same building.

“We’re waiting to find out if my brother-in-law’s children are alive,” he said.

A medical source who did not wish to be identified told AFP that the hospital was overwhelmed.

The hospital announced on social media that it needed blood of all types. A doctor told AFP he had donated blood himself.

MSF accuses Israel of ‘continuous attacks on civilians’

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said its teams were responding to a mass influx of injured patients, including children at the Rafik Hariri public hospital in Beirut.

“Patients are arriving with shrapnel injuries and heavy bleeding. One patient arrived to the hospital having lost both legs. The situation is chaotic as more people are brought in,” said Christopher Stokes, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Lebanon.

“These indiscriminate strikes on highly densely populated areas are completely unacceptable,” he said.

“Continuous attacks on civilians must stop… The repeated forcible displacement of people — a war crime — needs to stop.”

Israel says it does not target civilians and takes steps to mitigate harm to innocents, but that Hezbollah operates from behind civilian cover and uses the civilian population as human shields.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk, said: “The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific. Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief.”

Hezbollah initially held its fire on Wednesday after the US ceasefire with Iran was announced, then resumed its attacks, alleging Israeli ceasefire violations.

A senior Lebanese official told Reuters that Lebanon did not take part in correspondence leading up to the ceasefire.