ZOUK MOSBEH, Lebanon — Israel's intense bombardment left Beirut to confront new devastation Thursday as the U.S. ally's assault on Lebanon imperiled the fragile ceasefire with Iran.
Mounting global condemnation of Israel was matched by confusion over whether Lebanon was part of the truce deal agreed to by President Donald Trump. In the capital, Beirut, the deadliest day of the current Israeli military campaign saw rescue workers search the rubble overnight as stunned civilians reeled from the surprise attacks.
Adam Nsouli, a 25-year-old nurse at the American University Hospital in Beirut, said he was haunted by what he witnessed after the Israeli strikes, which killed over 300 people, according to the Lebanese ministry of health.
"The smell, the smoke — you can barely see — the fire, the sound of the screams," he recounted to NBC News on Thursday. "All the destruction ... it's like a Hollywood movie."
At the hospital, Nsouli said, "we didn't stop receiving rescued and dead people all night," with babies arriving at the medical facility without parents, "traumatized and crying."
Global backlash
Israel’s assault on Lebanon had already killed nearly 2,000 people and displaced more than a million. Now it threatened the collapse of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire that had raised hopes across the Middle East.
Israel launched a barrage of strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday despite the ceasefire, a sudden intensification of a campaign it says is directed at the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
At least 203 people were killed, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, including scores in Beirut where strikes slammed into densely populated areas with no warning.
An aid worker said the strikes appeared indiscriminate, hitting areas crowded with homes and not focusing on known militant strongholds.
A chorus of global officials denounced the attacks Thursday and demanded Lebanon be included in the ceasefire.
“That escalation that we saw from Israel yesterday was deeply damaging, and we want to see an end to hostilities,” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Times Radio.
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It is "hard to argue" the strikes were carried out in self-defense, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the attacks were "intolerable" and stressed that “Lebanon must absolutely be covered by this truce.”
Iranian officials have insisted that Lebanon was included in the ceasefire agreed to by Washington and Tehran, noting that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Shari, a lead mediator, explicitly stated that Lebanon was included in the truce.
“There is no room for denial and backtracking," parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said. Continued attacks on Lebanon will bring “explicit costs and STRONG responses,” he said on X.
Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call Wednesday to scale back Israel’s strikes in Lebanon to help ensure the success of the Iran negotiations, a senior administration official said.
While the Trump administration and Israel have both said Lebanon is not covered by the ceasefire, Israel agreed “to be a helpful partner,” the official said.
Netanyahu said Thursday he was seeking “open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible,” which would focus on disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon, even as the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for entire Beirut neighborhoods.
American officials continue to deny that Lebanon was included in the deal. Vice President JD Vance, set to lead Trump's team in the talks, said Lebanon was a “legitimate misunderstanding” and that Iran would be “dumb” to let talks collapse over it.
Lebanese 'feel betrayed'
Israel's ongoing attacks sent shock waves across Lebanon, where a national day of mourning was declared Thursday.
“I feel betrayed and devastated," said Marwan Saleh, a student of law and international affairs at the Lebanese University's Beirut campus.
"I will never look at the United States of America the same," he said. "Sheer brutality for the sake of it. Depravity and double speak."
One humanitarian worker on the ground in Beirut said it was “a very sad day in Lebanon. People are angry. They are hurt.” Dr. Tania Baban, the Lebanon country director for the Chicago-based nonprofit group MedGlobal, described how blasts rang out in densely populated civilian areas across the capital.
"What happened yesterday was a massacre," she said. "That they are able to do this without anybody stopping them is just beyond my mind to understand."
Elie Khairallah, head of the media and public relations department at the Lebanese Civil Defense Directorate, said that more than 250 people were killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire began, with more than 90 killed in Beirut alone and hundreds injured.
“No matter how accurate I can be, I can’t describe yesterday’s situation,” Khairallah said. “I am speechless.”
The Lebanese Health Ministry put the preliminary number of dead at 203, with 890 others wounded, but said it had yet to release final numbers.
New attacks Thursday
Israel vowed to press ahead with its campaign in Lebanon, insisting the country was not included in the truce.
It began its latest ground and aerial assault on Lebanon last month after Hezbollah launched strikes on Israel’s north in retaliation for the joint attack on Iran and the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Israel Defense Forces said it launched at least 100 strikes within the short span of 10 minutes Wednesday, its largest barrage of the current military campaign.
The IDF said it struck Hezbollah headquarters, military arrays and command-and-control centers, but acknowledged many of its targets were located “within the heart of the civilian population,” accusing the militant group of using civilians as human shields, an assertion frequently repeated in its devastating assault on the Gaza Strip.
And Israeli forces launched new attacks Thursday, issuing fresh evacuation orders for neighborhoods in Beirut, with Hezbollah also striking northern Israel in retaliation. The militant group said in a statement that its "response will continue" until the attacks on Lebanon stop.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed "we will continue to strike Hezbollah wherever necessary, until full security is restored to the residents of the north. He said on X that Israeli forces had killed the personal secretary and nephew of Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, Ali Yusuf Harshi, in the assault.
The sudden escalation in violence follows growing fears over Israel's vow to model its invasion of southern Lebanon on its deadly military offensive in Gaza.
Israeli forces have destroyed a growing number of homes in the south, as well as bridges across the key Litani River, linking the south to the rest of the country, as it looks to establish a "security zone" in the area.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had previously said those forced to flee from the south would not be able to return to the area until the safety of Israelis in northern Israel was guaranteed.
Many of the displaced sought shelter in Beirut, only to find themselves once again under fire.
Zoya Awky reported from Zouk Mosbeh and Chantal Da Silva from London.
