Israel carries out large wave of air strikes across Lebanon

Israel carried out a large wave of air strikes across Lebanon. Israel described it as the largest wave of air strikes in this conflict, hitting more than 100 of what it called Hezbollah command centres and military sites in 10 minutes. Attacks hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Across Lebanon, more than 1,500 people have been killed, including 130 children. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced - one in five of the population - most of them from Shia Muslim communities in the south, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut, areas where Hezbollah holds sway. Villages near the border have been destroyed, as invading Israeli troops aim to create what the Israeli authorities call a security buffer zone, to destroy Hezbollah's infrastructure and push its fighters away. The Lebanese presidency said it would continue "efforts to include Lebanon in regional peace" after the announcement of a ceasefire in the war between the US and Israel against Iran, which had started in late February.

Hezbollah said the group was on the "threshold of a major historic victory" and warned displaced families to wait for a formal ceasefire announcement before trying to return home. The latest escalation in the decades-long conflict between Hezbollah and Israel erupted when the group fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for the killing of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and in response to near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon despite a ceasefire in the country that had been agreed on November 2024.