Lebanon has declared a day of national mourning, after Israel launched its deadliest wave of bombings since resuming large-scale attacks in early March. The devastating attacks began without warning on Wednesday, striking Beirut, the Beqaa Valley, Mount Lebanon, Sidon and villages across southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 203 people were killed and more than a thousand injured; Civil Defense workers put the death toll even higher, at over 250. The attacks struck commercial areas and apartment high-rises and included Sunni Muslim and Christian neighborhoods in central Beirut that are unaffiliated with Hezbollah. Belgium’s foreign minister, who survived an Israeli strike just a few hundred yards from the Belgian Embassy, wrote on X, “Just before I was commending President Aoun for offering to open official negotiations with Israel towards a ceasefire, Israel launched, with no previous warning, one of the most massive strikes since the beginning of the hostilities … The ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran must include Lebanon!”

The United Nations and world leaders quickly condemned the attacks, which came just hours after the U.S. and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire agreement. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who helped broker the deal, called on all parties to exercise restraint and respect the ceasefire as agreed upon. Both Sharif and the speaker of the Iranian parliament had said the ceasefire was supposed to include Lebanon, but on Wednesday Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, said Lebanon was not part of the deal.

Vice President JD Vance: “I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”