Israeli strike hits central Beirut after evacuation warning

Israeli airstrikes targeted Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, intensifying the conflict with Hezbollah and leaving dozens dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. The latest attacks mark a deepening of the Middle East crisis following Hezbollah's March 2 assault on Israel.

Laila Bassam and Enas Alashray/Reuters

18 March 2026 at 05:23:07

Israeli strike hits central Beirut after evacuation warning

Emergency personnel work at the site of a collapsed building, in the aftermath of an Israeli strike, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in central Beirut's Bachoura neighbourhood, Lebanon, March 18, 2026.

Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

An Israeli airstrike hit Beirut's Bachoura neighbourhood in the centre of the city on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, with a loud explosion heard in the area after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate a building ahead of the strike.

The attack was part of a broader wave of Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday, including raids on other parts of the Lebanese capital, as well as southern and eastern areas of the country, signalling an intensification of Israel's campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Earlier on Wednesday, other Israeli strikes on Beirut killed at least six people and wounded 24 others, Lebanon's health ministry said. In southern and eastern Lebanon, at least 14 people were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes, the state news agency reported, citing the health ministry.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had begun striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

The latest strikes suck Lebanon deeper into the war in the Middle East after Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2, saying it aimed to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader. Israel has responded with an offensive that has killed more than 800 people in Lebanon and forced more than 800,000 from their homes.

-Laila Bassam and Enas Alashray/Reuters