Israel carried out repeated strikes on central Beirut on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, including Mohammad Sherri, director of political programmes at Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV, AFP reported quoting Lebanese authorities. The Israeli military also announced plans to strike river crossings in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon was drawn into the broader Middle East war on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel responded with intensive airstrikes across Lebanon and launched ground operations in the south, targeting multiple regions, including central Beirut.
AFP journalists in the capital reported strikes on three densely populated neighbourhoods on Wednesday. In Bashoura, a building collapsed entirely after being hit.
According to an Israeli military map, the building had previously been targeted last week following an evacuation warning.
“It was at 4:00 am, we were asleep,” said Sara Saleh, 29, a displaced resident from Beirut’s southern suburbs, long a Hezbollah stronghold. “We fled in our pyjamas,” she told AFP after leaving a school where her family had been sheltering.
Lebanese authorities said Israeli strikes since March 2 have killed at least 912 people, with more than a million displaced.
Strikes hit central Beirut
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported a strike on an apartment in the Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhood, near the government headquarters and several embassies. Two other strikes targeted apartments in the central Basta district, also heavily populated and previously hit during the 2024 war with Hezbollah.
A building collapses in Beirut following an Israeli strike after the Israeli military called on residents of the city`s central neighbourhood to evacuate, warning of an imminent attack on the Lebanese capital targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah pic.twitter.com/vQpWZQs68m
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 18, 2026
AFP correspondents saw emergency workers at Basta, where walls of apartments on two adjacent floors had been blasted off. In Zuqaq al-Blat, people were seen clearing dust and shattered glass from streets and cars after another strike later in the morning.
Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV confirmed that Mohammad Sherri and his wife were killed in Zuqaq al-Blat. Unlike last week, no evacuation warning was issued before this raid. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported a preliminary toll of 12 dead and 41 wounded in these areas.
Escalation in the south
Israeli strikes also hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, long a target since the start of the conflict, as well as towns and villages across southern Lebanon. In Sidon, a coastal city, a vehicle carrying displaced people was struck near the main seaside road, killing two, including a civil defence rescuer.
The Israeli military said early Wednesday it had begun striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including the Tyre area. At least four strikes were reported, including on a house. The military announced plans to target bridges and crossings over the Litani River to cut off large parts of southern Lebanon.
“To prevent the transfer of reinforcements and weapons, the army intends to attack crossings on the Litani River starting this afternoon,” said Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee on X. Evacuation orders were issued for much of Tyre and surrounding areas, prompting residents to flee north or move to Tyre’s old quarters, exempt from the warning.
Elsewhere, Lebanese authorities reported four deaths in Baalbek, including four Syrian nationals, with a two-storey building completely destroyed. In the southern town of Habboush, at least three people were killed.
(With AFP inputs)