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A day of mourning has been declared in Lebanon following multiple Israeli airstrikes that resulted in over 254 deaths and more than 1,165 injuries throughout Wednesday’s bombings, shortly after an agreement was reached between the United States and Iran for a ceasefire of two weeks.

The Israeli airstrikes were reported as “atrocious” by Volker Turk, the UN human rights commissioner. At the same time, other areas of Damascus and Lebanon suffered heavy damage as well due to the air assaults occurring at different locations throughout the city of Beirut.

“Throughout the course of this aggression, Lebanon will mobilise every political and diplomatic effort possible to put a halt to Israel’s killing machine”, he said.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel reported that the truce between the US and Iran would not apply to Lebanon, as per JD Vance Vice President of the United States, stating, “We never made that commitment.” In addition, Netanyahu’s Representative said that while the US will halt operations against Iran’s interests; it will continue targeting Hezbollah command stations in southern Lebanon.

The timing of these attacks has dramatically disrupted the fragile ceasefire negotiated with. The Trump administration; Iran and its allies claim that the ceasefire should include all areas in the region, including Lebanon; however, both Washington and Israel believe the ceasefire is only for Gaza. Hezbollah has reportedly responded by firing rockets into Northern Israel.
Internationally, there was a quick response to the attacks with protests outside the Israeli embassy in London and calls for restraint to preserve the ceasefire. In addition, the Israeli attacks have further complicated the already dire humanitarian situation in Lebanon by destroying homes and displacing families.

Throughout this escalating violence, the difficulties faced by the parties involved in continuing to move forward with a peaceful and stable resolution to the ongoing conflict between Iran, Israel, Hezbollah, and the United States have become even more complicated and challenging.