Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, killing more than 250 people on Wednesday even as the Iran-aligned group paused its attacks under a two-week US-Iran ceasefire.
On Wednesday afternoon, at least five consecutive strikes rocked the capital Beirut, sending columns of smoke into the sky as Israel's military said it had launched the largest coordinated strike of the war. More than 100 Hezbollah command centres and military sites were targeted in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon within ten minutes, it said.
A total of 254 people were killed and over 1,100 wounded across Lebanon, the country's civil defence service said. The highest toll was in Beirut, where 91 people were killed. The health ministry gave a toll of 182 dead across the country and said it was not a final figure.
Reuters reporters saw civil defence workers guiding an older woman onto a crane to evacuate her from a building in a western part of Beirut. Half of the building had been sheared off in an Israeli strike, leaving residents on the upper floors trapped.
Earlier, Reuters reporters saw people on motorcycles picking up the wounded and transporting them to hospitals because there were not enough ambulances to get to them in time. One of Beirut's biggest medical facilities said it needed donations of all blood types.
"The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific," said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. "Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief."
Late on Wednesday evening, a strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs, according to a Reuters live broadcast.
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