Calls for a ceasefire to be expanded to include Lebanon have been growing, with Israel and the United States asserting that the country was not covered by the truce. “Continuing military activity in Lebanon poses a serious danger to the ceasefire (…),” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson in a statement.
Rescuers continued to search for victims under the rubble on Thursday in Beirut, following Israeli strikes that were the deadliest since the beginning of the war in early March, as Lebanon observed a day of mourning.
The Israeli army continued its strikes in the south of the country, causing at least five deaths in Abassiyeh, a village near Tyre, according to Civil Defense.
Israel’s simultaneous strikes on Wednesday, carried out without warning, targeting the heart of Beirut and several other regions of Lebanon, resulted in 182 deaths and 890 injuries, according to a latest unofficial official tally.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced that it had bombed northern Israel in response to what they deemed a “violation of the ceasefire.”
The battling continued as rescuers in Beirut sifted through the rubble in residential neighborhoods. An Israeli strike hit a neighborhood in the southern suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, largely abandoned by its residents.
In the south, Israel repeatedly bombarded the surroundings of a strategic bridge in southern Lebanon, partially blocking traffic, according to an AFP photographer on the scene.
The bridge connects the north and south of the Litani River in the Tyre region, where thousands of families have remained despite evacuation warnings from Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concern over the strikes in Lebanon, stating to his American and Iranian counterparts that stopping them was a “necessary condition” for a “credible and sustainable” ceasefire.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned the “devastating deaths and destruction” caused by the Israeli strikes.
