BEIRUT (AP) — Without warning on Wednesday, Israeli warplanes unleashed a devastating assault on central Beirut, tearing apart buildings and turning residential blocks into debris piles in neighborhoods that had previously remained untouched by the conflict.
Israeli military officials later stated that the Iran-supported Hezbollah organization had moved operations into civilian and business districts well beyond the militia’s traditional base in the capital’s southern areas, where the group’s distinctive yellow banners line the streets and Israeli evacuation notices have been posted for weeks.
Lebanese Health Ministry officials reported the assault claimed more than 300 lives and left over 1,800 people injured, with the majority of victims located in Beirut and surrounding southern communities. The casualties represent the highest single-day death toll during the five-week conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Wednesday’s military strikes targeted bustling shopping areas, densely packed residential zones, and affluent waterfront neighborhoods — locations that had previously felt insulated from the warfare, aside from the constant presence of Israeli surveillance drones and sporadic explosion sounds.
A devastating attack along Corniche al-Mazraa, one of the city’s major thoroughfares, demolished an apartment complex adjacent to a well-known dried fruit and nut vendor, igniting numerous parked vehicles with occupants still trapped inside.
In the hillside community of Tallet El Khayat, another blast leveled a multi-level structure near an exclusive shopping center — local residents confirmed that a celebrated Arabic poet and her spouse were among the fatalities.
The coastal Ain el Tineh area suffered another direct hit that destroyed an apartment complex housing an exotic plant store, located close to the parliamentary speaker’s home and facing the city’s sole public beach access.
Additional bombardments demolished residential units adjacent to a renowned confectionery in the mixed-use Mar Elias district, obliterated portions of a structure containing a snack bar and beauty salon in Caracas, destroyed ground-level floors of a building on Beirut’s waterfront boulevard, and created burning wreckage in the crowded Basta community near an educational facility housing displaced families — an attack that killed a young woman and her two children among others.
