Beirut: Lebanon reeled Thursday after the deadliest day in more than five weeks of renewed war between Israel and Hezbollah, as rescue workers in Beirut and elsewhere searched for survivors and bodies and Israel warned of escalation.
Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed at least 203 people and wounded more than 1,000, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Israel’s military said it targeted sites of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, but several strikes hit densely packed commercial and residential areas without warning during rush hour, leading to widespread civilian casualties.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the attacks “barbaric.” Israel said the ceasefire in the Iran war doesn’t apply in its fight against Hezbollah.
Lebanese Civil Defence spokesperson Elie Khairallah told The Associated Press that a wounded woman was found alive under the rubble overnight in the seaside Beirut neighbourhood of Ain Mreisseh, and a man was found alive in his collapsed apartment building in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Others waited anxiously. Mohammad Chehab, a Syrian man from Deir el-Zour, said six of his 10 family members had been found dead in a destroyed building.
“They’ve been searching all day” for the rest, he said, watching rescue workers dig through the rubble. At hospitals, survivors and doctors described the carnage.
“I thought I was dead. What happened? A big flash of light struck my face and eyes and I found someone flying over and landing next to me. He was dead,” said Rabee Koshok from his bed at Makassed hospital in Beirut. He had been in the commercial district of Corniche al Mazraa when a strike hit a nearby building. Dr. Wael Jarrosh said the hospital had received around 70 injured patients within 10 minutes of the blasts. Two people died and five remain hospitalised, including three in intensive care, Jarrosh said.