Iranian negotiators were expected to set off later on Thursday for Pakistan for the first peace talks of the war, where they are due to meet a delegation led by US Vice President JD Vance on Saturday. But there was no sign Iran had lifted its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the worst disruption to global energy supplies in history, and Tehran said there would be no deal as long as Israel was striking Lebanon. The supply shortage drove the price that European and Asian refineries were paying for a physical barrel of oil to record levels near $150 a barrel, with even higher prices for some products such as jet fuel.
Israel, which invaded Lebanon last month in parallel with the war on Iran to root out the armed group Hezbollah, Tehran’s ally, says its actions there are not covered by the ceasefire announced late on Tuesday by US President Donald Trump.
Washington has also said Lebanon is not covered by the truce, but Iran and Pakistan, which acted as mediator, say it was explicitly part of the deal.
A host of countries, including prominent US allies Britain and France, said the truce should extend to Lebanon and condemned Israel’s attacks on the country.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it had killed the nephew of Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem, who had served as his personal secretary, and had struck river crossings used by the group overnight.
Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs just before midnight and at dawn, and hit towns across the south on Thursday morning, Lebanese state media said.
For its part, Hezbollah, which had initially said it would pause attacks on Israel in line with the ceasefire, said it was resuming them on Thursday morning and had fired once across the border into Israel and twice at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
Rescuers across Lebanon were working through the night to try to save wounded people trapped under rubble of destroyed buildings after the Israeli attacks, which hit heavily populated areas without customary warnings for civilians to flee.
“This is my place, this is my house, I’ve been living here like more than 51 years. So, everything destroyed. See?” said Naim Chebbo, sweeping shattered glass and debris from his home in Beirut after strikes destroyed the building next door.Israeli strikes have hit several dense commercial and residential areas in central Beirut without warning, killing hundreds of people and wounding more than 1,000 others, hours after a ceasefire was announced in the United States-Israeli war on Iran.
Lebanon’s Civil Defence said at least 254 people were killed and 1,165 others were wounded in the attacks on Wednesday.
Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine said Lebanon was facing a “dangerous escalation” after Israel launched “more than 100 air strikes” across the country.
“Ambulances are still transporting victims to hospitals. We urge international organisations to assist the Lebanese health sector,” Nassereddine told Al Jazeera.
Israel’s army said that it had carried out its largest coordinated strike across Lebanon since it started a new military operation in the country on March 2. The attacks targeted areas in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the attacks targeted Hezbollah infrastructure.
The Israeli military “carried out a surprise strike on hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists at command centres across Lebanon. This is the largest concentrated blow Hezbollah has suffered since Operation Beepers,” Katz said in a video statement, referring to a major 2024 operation against Hezbollah involving pager bombs.
The Israeli military said “most of the infrastructure that was struck was located within the heart of the civilian population,” claiming that “steps were taken to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals as much as possible.”
Plumes of smoke could be seen rising over Beirut and the suburbs as panicked people rushed out onto the streets.
The Lebanese Red Cross said 100 of its ambulances were responding to the attacks and its teams were working to transport the injured to hospitals.
“We could hear a series of enormous, deep, booming explosions coming not just from the southern suburbs but many other parts of the city,” Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb said, reporting from Beirut.
“Many of the locations were in places where nobody expected strikes to hit. It caused panic and chaos in the streets. Children were crying. People were shouting – many people injured, running through the streets trying to get to hospitals. Others abandoned their cars in the traffic.”
Hezbollah condemned the attacks and said they targeted “civilian areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the capital, Sidon, southern Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley.”
Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri called the attacks a “full-fledged war crime”.