Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday they would respond if Israel does not halt its attacks on Lebanon, as deadly strikes persisted a day after a U.S.-Iran ceasefire was reached.
"We issue a firm warning to the United States, which violates treaties, and to its Zionist ally, its executioner: if the aggression against beloved Lebanon does not cease immediately, we will fulfil our duty and deliver a regret-inducing response," the Guards said in a statement carried on state TV, using a reference to Israel.
Israel says the U.S.-Iran truce does not include Lebanon, which was drawn into the war after Iran-backed group Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel.
Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, even as the Iran-aligned group paused attacks on northern Israel and Israeli troops in Lebanon under the cease-fire.
Israeli position contradicted comments by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key intermediary in the U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks, who had said the truce would include Lebanon. In a statement, Hezbollah condemned what it called Israel's "barbaric aggression" and said the attacks underscored its "natural and legal right to resist the occupation and respond to its aggression."
Consecutive explosions shook Beirut, sending smoke billowing across the capital, as Israel's military said it had launched the largest coordinated strike of the war. More than 100 Hezbollah command centers and military sites were targeted in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, it said. The strikes killed 112 people and wounded 837 across the country, Lebanon's health ministry said.
In Beirut, Reuters reporters saw people on motorcycles picking up wounded and transporting them to hospitals because there were not enough ambulances to get them in time. A group of firefighters worked to put out flames in a car park after one strike left more than a dozen cars scorched and mangled.
