BEIRUT, 12 March. - (ANA) - At least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon overnight on Thursday as Israel intensified its bombardment of the country following a massive Hezbollah missile attack.

 

The single deadliest attack occurred on the Beirut seafront, where a "double-tap" strike on a vehicle killed at least eight people and wounded 31 others, according to Lebanese authorities.

 

This is the third time Israel has bombed the centre of the city since the war in Lebanon escalated 10 days ago.

 

A new wave of airstrikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs, with the Israeli military saying it had struck 10 Hezbollah targets.

 

Lebanese media reported attacks on several towns in the country's south, including Taybeh and Qana, near the coastal city of Tyre. At least seven people were killed in attacks in the south and other parts of the country, the country's state news agency said.

 

The latest strikes came hours after Hezbollah launched its largest missile attack of the 10-day conflict yet and announced the start of a new military operation against Israel, with reports that it was doing so in coordination with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

 

Dramatic footage shared online showed dozens of projectiles flying over the border into northern Israel.

 

Israeli media reports suggested that the Iran-backed group fired some 200 rockets, which coincided with a ballistic missile attack from Iran.

 

Lebanon is planning to summon diplomats from the Iranian embassy to explain a statement from the IRGC that it took part in the attacks from Lebanese soil.

 

Israel, despite having killed at least 634 people already in ten days of bombing, is now threatening to take more extreme action in Lebanon in response to the alleged IRGC-Hezbollah actions.

 

It has stepped up threats against the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

 

Israeli officials have said that they will begin targeting Lebanon's civilian infrastructure if it does not disarm Hezbollah, Israel's public broadcaster Kan reported on Wednesday evening.

 

Lebanon was dragged into the conflict days after the start of the Israel-US assault on Iran on 28 February, when Hezbollah began firing missiles across the border in response to the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

 

Israel, which had continued to target Lebanon on a frequent basis following the November 2024 ceasefire, launched heavy airstrikes across the country, killing hundreds of civilians.

 

It also ordered hundreds of thousands of people to flee the country's south and Beirut's southern suburbs, triggering the country's largest displacement crisis in years.

 

 

In addition to killing more than 630 people, Israeli strikes have also injured almost 1,600 others and displaced 816,000 people.

 

 

 

 

The UN's aid chief Tom Fletcher warned on Wednesday that Lebanon and the wider region face "grave peril" as the conflict intensifies the country's humanitarian crisis with "alarming speed".

 

His comments came during a UN Security Council meeting where UN officials and representatives of countries urged Israel and Hezbollah to end the fighting.

 

"An immediate de-escalation and cessation of violence is imperative," Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN lead for political and peacebuilding affairs, told the council.

 

Ahead of the meeting, some 30 countries expressed "deep alarm at the escalation of hostilities" in a joint statement.

 

"Lebanon is facing an extremely dangerous moment and a true humanitarian catastrophe," the country's ambassador to the UN, Ahmad Arafa, told the Security Council.

 

The country "finds itself trapped in a war that it did not choose between Israel and Hezbollah", he said.  - (ANA)-

 

 

AB/ANA/12 March 2026 - - -