By JKNewsMedia
DOZENS OF people have been killed in Beirut, Lebanon, after Israeli forces launched an aerial barrage described as the largest in its current offensive against Hezbollah, hours after a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran took effect.
JKNewsMedia.com reports that Israeli strikes killed dozens and injured hundreds on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, describing the figures as a preliminary toll.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the truce does not include Lebanon, while Israeli officials stated that operations against Hezbollah would continue.
The position contradicted an earlier statement from Pakistan, which mediated the ceasefire talks who indicated that the halt in U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran appeared largely to hold early Wednesday.
However, airstrikes struck without warning across Beirut, with loud explosions reported near government buildings, schools, commercial districts and the country’s only international airport.
Meanwhile, hospitals issued urgent appeals for blood donations as the doctors’ union called on health workers to report to medical centres to assist the wounded.
Smoke also rose across Beirut and other areas, including the city of Tyre on the Mediterranean coast.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said forces targeted Hezbollah militants and positions in what he described as “surprise attacks.”
The Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets within 10-minutes across Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.
Katz said Israel has “insisted on differentiating the arenas between Iran and Lebanon in order to change the reality in Lebanon.”
Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel last month in retaliation for a U.S. and Israeli attack that killed its patron, the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the Israeli attacks “targeted densely populated residential areas and claimed the lives of innocent civilians throughout Lebanon, particularly in Beirut.”
He called on allies to “to help us stop these attacks by all available means.”
Also, the Lebanese government has sought to avert further escalation, appealing to the Trump administration and Western allies including France to intervene, while offering to engage in negotiations with Israel.
Israel rejected the overtures, continuing its campaign against Hezbollah.
Israeli authorities ordered a ground invasion of southern Lebanon and directed residents to evacuate more than 10 percent of the country’s territory.
Bridges linking the south to other regions were destroyed, and plans were announced to raze homes in villages near the border.
Katz said about 600,000 displaced residents of southern Lebanon “will not be allowed to return until the security of northern residents is guaranteed.”
The offensive has killed 1,500 people, including 130 children, and displaced more than 1 million residents, Lebanese authorities said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said including Lebanon in the ceasefire was “indispensable.”
“The situation is critical,” he said. “What we are seeing today, with the attacks and the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, cannot be a long-term response.”
Macron said France was working to ensure a ceasefire mechanism involving the U.S. is fully reactivated and to strengthen support for the Lebanese army to regain control of the territory and counter Hezbollah.
Reacting, leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Japan, Canada, Italy and Spain welcomed the two-week pause in fighting with Iran and called on “all sides to implement the ceasefire, including in Lebanon.”
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