The Israeli Air Force on Wednesday carried out its largest wave of airstrikes yet against Hezbollah, the military said, after announcing that it would keep fighting the Iran-backed terror group in Lebanon despite the two-week ceasefire with Tehran that came into place hours earlier.

The strikes came as Hezbollah urged civilians not to return to southern Lebanon before there was an official ceasefire, and as a Hezbollah official said the terror group had not publicly committed to the ceasefire because Israel had not either.

The Israel Defense Forces said its strikes targeted Beirut, the eastern Beqaa Valley and southern Lebanon. It issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes for Lebanese civilians in Beirut’s southern suburbs and areas of southern Lebanon.

A source in Lebanon’s civil defense reported dozens of people killed in Beirut, and the Lebanese health ministry called on people there to clear the roads to let ambulances through. At least a dozen people were killed in other strikes in the southern Lebanese cities of Sidon and Tyre, according to Lebanese authorities and state media.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes targeted “hundreds of Hezbollah operatives.”

Two military officials briefing Israeli reporters said the wave of airstrikes did not represent “closing strikes” of the campaign, and that the fighting against Hezbollah continues until Israel’s political leadership says otherwise.

The prime minister of Pakistan, who mediated between the US and Iran, declared in his post announcing the two-week ceasefire overnight Wednesday-Thursday that it would cover Lebanon as well. Iran said the same, while the US has yet to comment on the matter, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has insisted that Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah would continue.

Even as Israeli strikes intensified, Hezbollah notably held its fire for most of Wednesday. Shortly after 5 p.m., though, it launched rocket at Israel’s Galilee, triggering sirens in the border communities of Shtula and Netua.

The projectile hit an open area, and no injuries were reported.

For his part, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in a statement issued by the IDF that the army “will continue to strike the Hezbollah terror organization and seize every opportunity. We will not compromise on the security of northern residents. We will continue to attack without pause.”

The IDF branded the wave of strikes launched on Wednesday with the codename of “Eternal Darkness.”

The military officials briefing reporters said this wave of strikes was planned several weeks ago, albeit after the February 28 start of the Iran war, which Hezbollah joined on March 2.

The officials insisted that the IDF was planning to proceed with the strikes regardless of whether a ceasefire was reached with Iran. The strikes were carried out after various “operational conditions” were considered optimal, the officials said.

According to the IDF, the strikes were carried out across Lebanon by 50 fighter jets that dropped some 160 bombs on 100 targets within 10 minutes.

Among the targets, the IDF said, were Hezbollah command centers and other military infrastructure, including intelligence headquarters and offices used by Hezbollah to plan attacks on IDF troops and Israeli civilians; infrastructure of Hezbollah’s rocket and naval units; and assets of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force and aerial unit.

“This is the largest attack carried out against Hezbollah’s infrastructures since the start of Operation Roaring Lion,” the IDF said, using Israel’s name for the bombing campaign in Iran. The military added that most of the targeted sites were located “within the heart of the civilian population, as part of Hezbollah’s cynical exploitation of Lebanese civilians as human shields to safeguard its operations.”

Katz, in a video statement, claimed that the strikes were “the largest concentrated blow Hezbollah has suffered since the pager operation,” referring to the exploding pager attack that targeted Hezbollah members in 2024.

He also said that Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem was warned that “Hezbollah would pay a very heavy price for attacking Israel on behalf of Iran, and his personal turn will also come.”

The IDF also said Hezbollah has left its stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, known as the Dahiyeh, and was instead “repositioning toward northern Beirut and mixed areas in the city.”

Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokeswoman, warned Lebanese civilians that “the destruction that Hezbollah brought upon the Dahiyeh will move with it as well.”

“Hezbollah terror operatives, there is no safe place for you. The IDF will continue to pursue you and operate with great force,” Waweya added.

In some parts of Beirut, strikes came without warning, prompting people on the streets to start running and motorists to honk their horns in an effort to clear the way, according to AFP journalists.

“I saw the blast, it was very strong, and there were children killed, some with their hands cut off,” Yasser Abdallah, who works in an appliance store in central Beirut, told AFP.

One of the strikes hit Corniche al-Mazraa, one of the main roads in the capital.

An AFP photographer saw widespread damage, buildings ablaze and destroyed cars.

“A plane struck, and people started running left and right, and smoke was billowing” from the targeted building, said another witness, Ali Younes.

Hezbollah claims it’s on the cusp of victory

Despite the continued Israeli strikes, Hezbollah sought to frame the Iran ceasefire announcement as a victory, possibly because of Pakistan’s insistence that the truce covered Lebanon.

“Today we stand on the threshold of a great historic victory, which will be achieved thanks to the sacrifices of the fighters, the blood of the martyrs, and your unmatched steadfastness and patience,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

“We call on you in these decisive moments for more patience, steadfastness and waiting, and not to go to the villages, towns and targeted areas in the south, Beqaa [Valley], and the southern suburbs of Beirut before the official final announcement of a ceasefire in Lebanon,” the group said.

Three Lebanese sources close to Hezbollah were cited by Reuters as saying the terror group had stopped attacking Israeli targets early on Wednesday.

A Hezbollah official, cited by The Associated Press, said it was giving mediators a chance to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon, and that “we have not announced our adherence to the ceasefire since the Israelis are not adhering to it.”

“We will not accept for the Israelis to continue behaving as they did before this war with regard to attacks,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. “We do not want this phase to continue.”

Speaking to Lebanese television channel Al-Jadeed, Hezbollah legislator Ibrahim Al-Moussawi warned of a response from Iran and its allies if Israel “does not adhere to a ceasefire.”

“The agreement includes Lebanon, according to its terms, and Iran insisted on this inclusion,” Al-Moussawi said.

Sirens sounded in Kiryat Shmona and surrounding towns on the Lebanon border on Wednesday afternoon, though the military said they were false alarms. The sirens had sounded after interceptor missiles were launched at a suspected drone. The IDF said the suspected drone later emerged as a “false identification.”

Israel has carried out massive airstrikes and pushed troops farther into Lebanon after Hezbollah, on March 2, launched its first rocket attack on Israel since the November 2024 ceasefire deal. The agreement had ended over a year of conflict initiated by Hezbollah, a day after fellow Iran-backed group Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah has said its renewed attacks were in response both to the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign on February 28, and to Israel’s continued attacks and presence in Lebanon since the ceasefire deal.

Over 1,500 people have been killed and about a million displaced in Lebanon since March 2, according to Lebanese authorities.

In that period, the IDF says it has killed some 1,100 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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