Live updates: Follow the latest news on the Iran war
Cards, leftover snacks and plastic plates littered the bloodstained ground at the Kalaa cafe in Sidon, southern Lebanon.
At around 1.30am, shortly before the US and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire, Israel struck the crowded venue on the city's busy corniche, killing at least eight people.
Hours later, as parts of the region breathed a sigh of relief at the ceasefire, Israel expanded its attacks on Lebanon. A wave of powerful blasts was felt across Beirut in what the Israeli military called its biggest strike of the war against more than 100 targets.
Inside the devastated cafe in Sidon on Wednesday, Loys, an employee who survived the strike, sat on a chair, listless, holding his head in his hands as a thick smell of blood and human remains lingered in the air. He said customers had been playing cards and smoking when the Israeli attack pulverised the place. One missile hit a car parked in front of the cafe and another crushed the venue, survivors told The National.
“It was just a normal night. People were enjoying themselves and never thought this could happen,” Loys said. Israel did not clarify the intended target. Sidon is far from the front line and is not part of the forced displacement maps issued by the Israeli army – which cover about 14 per cent of Lebanon.
Al Hadath reported one of the victims was the head of the Resistance Brigades in the Sunni village of Chebaa. The brigades are a group linked to Hezbollah that recruits beyond the Shiite community. The National could not independently verify the claim.
The venue and its surroundings were also packed with civilians: Lebanese and Syrian employees working in the cafe and displaced families sleeping in their cars along the waterfront.
“My cousin, Ahmad Tofah, was a civilian,” Zeid Nabaa said, as he searched for his relative’s belongings in a charred car. “He worked at the municipality in Chebaa and fled to Saida because of the bombing.” There, he had been working as a delivery driver, he added. Torn delivery jackets and burnt food packages were scattered across the scene.
Just before 3am, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced an immediate, two-week ceasefire covering Lebanon and other conflict zones. Lebanese held their breath, while videos showed displaced people are already hitting the road south to return to their village.
The announcement was soon denied by Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu's office published a statement in the morning saying the temporary ceasefire agreed by the US and Iran will not apply to Lebanon.
It continued to issue forced displacement orders and carry out attacks throughout the day, killing at least eight people and causing damage to a hospital and an ambulance in the early hours of Wednesday, state news agency NNA reported.
Israel struck Beirut without warning. Powerful blasts rocked the heavily populated neighbourhoods of Barbour, Corniche Al Mazraa, Ain Al Mreisseh and Burj Abi Haidar.
An Israeli strike hit Hiram Hospital in Tyre, “causing extensive damage to the building, including patient rooms and the hospital entrance, which collapsed on to parked cars”, NNA reported. Four people were killed in the attack that hit a building near the hospital.
Israel also struck an ambulance in Tyre “resulting in fatalities”, NNA added.
Casualties were also reported after Israel attacked a “medical point” run by the Islamic Health Authority in Shaqra. Other areas struck included Haddatha, Rabaa Thalathin, Abbasieh and Jmeijmeh, NNA said.
The Lebanese army warned people displaced people from south Lebanon not to return home yet as Israeli bombings were “continuing”. Israeli troops remain in south Lebanon after being sent across the border when Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran.
Hezbollah also urged its supporters not to return to southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley or Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying the areas remain “targeted” and calling for patience until an official ceasefire is announced.
Hezbollah's position
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the state is working to ensure any regional peace “includes Lebanon”, stressing that lasting stability requires full sovereignty, the withdrawal of occupying forces, and that only state institutions decide on war and peace.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the US-Iran ceasefire but said the situation in Lebanon was critical and that the agreement must end hostilities there. He called on all sides to abide by the deal's terms.
Meanwhile, there were no reports of Hezbollah attacks against Israel.
Hezbollah has been “notified of a ceasefire” and “committed to it since this morning”, a Lebanese political source close to the Iran-backed group said on Wednesday
The group’s leader, Naim Qassem, will set out its official position in a speech that will take into account Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comment that Lebanon is excluded from the two-week ceasefire.
“It will then be decided whether [Hezbollah] will adhere to the truce or not, depending on Israel’s position,” the source said. But they warned that Hezbollah would not return to the prewar situation where Israel bombed Lebanon every day.
Hezbollah-affiliated MP Ibrahim Al Moussawi said “there has been no official announcement from Hezbollah regarding a ceasefire“.
“If the Israeli enemy does not adhere to a ceasefire, then no party will commit to it and there will be a response from the region, including Iran. The agreement includes Lebanon according to its terms and Iran insisted on this inclusion,” he added.
Mr Netanyahu's statement on Wednesday contradicted Tehran's account of the deal. The US had reportedly told Israel it would achieve its goals in the coming negotiations with Iran.
“Israel supports President [Donald] Trump's decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks subject to Iran immediately opening the [Strait of Hormuz] and stopping all attacks on the US, Israel and countries in the region,” the statement from Mr Netanyahu's office said. “The two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon,” it added.
Iran had announced that the ceasefire includes the “cessation of the war on all fronts, including against the heroic Islamic resistance in Lebanon”.
Back in Sidon, residents felt helpless.
“There should be a stop to this,” Moustafa Chahid, who survived the strike said.
He is still in shock. “Fear … pure fear. I keep replaying the scene in my head … people just living, playing … and suddenly, a massacre,” he added.
