The Lebanese health ministry reported that 1,739 people have been killed and 5,873 wounded in Lebanon since the start of the intensified Israeli strikes on the country on 2 March.
In the late evening hours, rescue workers were battling time to find survivors under the rubble of tens of buildings that were leveled in the massive Israeli strikes throughout the day.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was "outraged by the devastating death and destruction" in densely populated areas across Lebanon.
"Any comprehensive agreement for the region must consider the safety, protection and dignity of civilians in Lebanon," said an ICRC statement.
"After more than five weeks of hostilities, people urgently need respite from the violence."
"The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement, urging the international community to help end the unfolding "nightmare".
"Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief. It places enormous pressure on a fragile peace, which is so desperately needed by civilians."
The Lebanese Civil Defence reported that at least 254 people were killed and 1,165 wounded in the intensive Israeli airstrikes on Beirut and the rest of the country since the afternoon.
“The Israeli enemy’s raid on Sidon in southern Lebanon killed at least 8 people and injured 22 others,” the Lebanese health ministry said in a preliminary toll.
Hezbollah said Wednesday it has the right to respond to Israel's deadly wave of strikes on residential buildings in Beirut and the rest of Lebanon.
"We affirm that the blood of the martyrs and the wounded will not be shed in vain, and that today's massacres, like all acts of aggression and savage crimes, confirm our natural and legal right to resist the occupation and respond to its aggression," Hezbiollah said in a statement.
Three Lebanese sources close to Hezbollah told Reuters that the group halted fire on northern Israel and on Israeli occupation forces in Lebanon in the early hours of Wednesday, as part of the US–Iran ceasefire announced earlier.
Lebanon's health ministry had said on Tuesday that 1,530 people had been killed -- 1,298 men, 102 women, and 130 children -- and 4,812 wounded since the start of the escalation in the Israeli bombing of the country on 2 March. The ministry said the death toll also included 57 healthcare workers. The Lebanese army said 10 of its soldiers had been killed, nine of them while off duty.
First responders carry a body recovered from the rubble into an ambulance at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on April 8, 2026. AFP
PM Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that Israel supports US President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend attacks on Iran for two weeks, but said the temporary ceasefire does not include Lebanon, while Tehran insists that any agreement to halt the war must include Lebanon.
"We insisted on differentiating between the arenas of Iran and Lebanon in order to change the reality in Lebanon and remove threats from the residents of the north," Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.
However, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that the United States, Iran, and their allies had agreed to a ceasefire “everywhere,” including Lebanon, following mediation by his government to stop weeks of fighting.
“I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY,” Sharif posted on X.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi raised "ceasefire violations" by Israel in a call with the commander of the armed forces of Pakistan, which mediated the fragile truce, an Iranian ministry statement said.
Araghchi "discussed the Zionist regime's violations of the ceasefire in Iran and Lebanon", referring to Israel, in a call with the powerful Pakistani military leader Field Marshal Asim Munir, the statement said.
A military-security source told Fars News that, amid continued violations of the temporary ceasefire by Israeli forces against Lebanon, Iran is finalizing plans for a deterrent operation targeting Israeli military positions in the occupied territories.
The source added that there is a growing assessment in Tehran that the continued strikes despite agreements across multiple fronts indicate either that the United States cannot control Netanyahu, or that CENTCOM has effectively allowed the Israeli side operational freedom.
Trump announced the ceasefire on his Truth Social platform, saying the United States was “very far along” in negotiating a long-term agreement with Iran, which had submitted a 10-point plan he described as “workable.”
In Iran, the Supreme National Security Council said negotiations with US representatives will be held in Islamabad for 15 days to finalize the agreement.
In a statement, it said Iran’s 10-point proposal includes recognition of its right to enrich uranium, lifting of all sanctions, release of frozen Iranian assets abroad, payment of compensation to Iran, withdrawal of US forces from the region, an end to the fighting on all fronts including Lebanon, guarantees against future attacks, and maintenance of Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, with ship transit coordinated with Iranian forces.
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