The ceasefire deal between the United States and Iran was barely hours old when Israel turned Beirut into a war zone again. On April 8, while families displaced across Lebanon were packing their bags and preparing to go home, Israeli warplanes were already in the air.
By the time the bombs stopped falling that night, 254 people were dead and over 1,165 wounded across Lebanon — and those numbers were still climbing as of early Thursday morning. Lebanon's Civil Defence said it was the bloodiest single day since Israel and Hezbollah reopened their conflict in early March.
The timing is what shocked the world.
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Late on April 7 in Washington — early April 8 in the Middle East — US President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that the US and Iran had reached a two-week ceasefire, brokered by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most critical oil passage. The two sides would negotiate a broader deal. Markets rallied. Displaced families in Sidon started loading their belongings.
Then Netanyahu's office put out a statement. Lebanon, he said, was not included in the deal. "Because of Hezbollah," Trump later told PBS. And within hours, Israel struck over 100 targets across Lebanon in what it called the largest coordinated strike of the entire war — hitting residential areas in central Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon, many of them without advance warning.
"These are not targeted attacks," said Dr. Tania Baban of MedGlobal, the Chicago-based nonprofit working in Beirut. An aid worker in the city described what she called "total chaos" — bombs raining on civilian areas with no sirens, no notice, nothing.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called it an attack on "defenceless civilians." Lebanese President Joseph Aoun used one word: barbaric. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said the scale of killing "defies belief." UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attacks and said they posed "a grave risk to the ceasefire."
Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on X that Israel's Lebanon strikes violated the ceasefire framework, and accused the US of failing to control its ally. The IRGC warned both Israel and the US that if the Lebanon attacks did not stop, Iran would deliver a "regretful response." By Thursday morning, Iran had shut the Strait of Hormuz again, after briefly allowing two oil tankers through.
Pakistan's Sharif, who brokered the deal, insisted Lebanon was covered under the agreement. France's Macron backed him. Trump backed Netanyahu.
What it means?
The ceasefire right now is alive in name only. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil and natural gas passes. With the strait shut again, oil markets are under pressure. VP JD Vance on Wednesday described it as a "fragile truce." Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir made clear he would "utilize every operational opportunity" against Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, more than 1.2 million Lebanese civilians are displaced. Over 1,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since March. Hezbollah has already fired rockets into northern Israel on Thursday morning in retaliation. The ceasefire that the world celebrated for about twelve hours is now on life support.
