Daily TribuneAt least 182 people were killed and nearly 900 wounded in the heaviest strikes on Lebanon.
FIREFIGHTERS try to extinguish a fire following an Israeli strike at the Corniche al-Mazraa neighborhood of Beirut on 8 April 2026.
Ibrahim Imro/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
TEHRAN (AFP) — Lebanon declared a national day of mourning on Thursday after Israeli strikes pummelled the country, shaking a fragile truce less than 48 hours after it came into force.
Washington and Tehran both claimed victory after agreeing to a two-week ceasefire and negotiations aimed at ending a war that has killed thousands across the Middle East and sparked global economic upheaval.
But the deal’s fractures emerged quickly on Wednesday as Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on neighboring Lebanon — including in densely packed central Beirut — since the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah joined the war in early March.
At least 182 people were killed and nearly 900 wounded on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said.
The Lebanese prime minister’s office said Thursday will be “a national day of mourning for the martyrs and wounded of the Israeli attacks that targeted hundreds of innocent, defenseless civilians,” ordering the closure of public administrations and the lowering of flags.
Hours later, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets towards Israel in response to its “violation” of the US-Iran truce, which was agreed to late Tuesday.
Israel has said its battle against the Lebanese group was not part of the ceasefire, an argument echoed by US Vice President JD Vance, days before he is due to lead talks with Tehran in Pakistan.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart... over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them, and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
But Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf appeared to threaten the ceasefire, posting on X that the “workable basis on which to negotiate” had already been violated, making further talks “unreasonable.”
Ghalibaf listed three alleged US violations of the truce plan: the continued attacks in Lebanon, a drone entering Iranian airspace and a denial of the country’s right to enrichment.
Adding to the fragility of the truce — agreed hours before a deadline set by US President Donald Trump — a senior US official said Iran’s 10-point plan was not the same set of conditions the White House had agreed to in order to pause the war.
In Lebanon, where UN rights chief Volker Turk called the scale of killing “horrific,” strikes across the capital Beirut without warning triggered scenes of horror and panic.
“People started running left and right, and smoke was billowing,” said Ali Younes, who was waiting for his wife near Corniche al-Mazraa, one of the areas targeted.
More than 1,700 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched airstrikes and a ground invasion last month, local officials said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned they would “fulfil our duty and deliver a response” if Israel did not cease its strikes, while Hezbollah said it had a “right” to respond.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country remained prepared to confront Iran if necessary, as it still had “objectives to complete,” with the military saying it continued to pursue the goal of “disarming” Hezbollah in Lebanon.
U.S. forces still deployed
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth also vowed that American forces remained at the ready if the conflict flared up again.
Trump said late Wednesday that US forces deployed near Iran would remain stationed in the area until a “real agreement” is reached.
“All US Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
While he said a deal falling through was “highly unlikely,” Trump threatened to revert to “bigger, and better, and stronger” strikes if an agreement was not reached.
“In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!” Trump wrote.
Iran agreed to reopen the vital thoroughfare during the two-week truce, but said it would maintain “dominion” over it.
The Strait of Hormuz is a key chokepoint through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.
In a Farsi-language release of demands circulated by Iranian state media, the Islamic republic also insisted that Washington accept its uranium enrichment programme.
That was not included in Iran’s demands released via the UN, and Trump has said the matter of enrichment would be “taken care of” in any deal.
Ahead of planned negotiations in Pakistan, Trump said Iran will have “no nuclear weapons” and the “Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE.”
Iran announced alternative routes on Thursday for ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, citing the risk of sea mines in the main zone of the vital waterway.
“All ships intending to transit the Strait of Hormuz are hereby notified that in order to comply with the principles of maritime safety and to be protected from possible collisions with sea mines... they should take alternative routes for traffic in the Strait of Hormuz,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement quoted by local media.
The statement shared instructions for an alternative entry and exit route through the strait.
