APTOPIX Lebanon Israel Iran War

Lebanon’s health ministry says that Israeli strikes during the day killed 182 people, the highest single-day death toll in the Israel-Hezbollah war. Israel launched a barrage of strikes in central Beirut and elsewhere in the country on Wednesday as a shaky ceasefire took effect between the U.S. and Iran. Iranian officials have maintained that the deal was supposed to include Lebanon, while Israel and the U.S. have insisted that it does not. The ministry says that another 890 people were wounded in the strikes. Altogether, 1,739 people have been killed and 5,873 wounded in Lebanon in just over five weeks since the outbreak of the war.

A ceasefire deal to pause the war in Iran appears to be hanging by a thread after the Islamic Republic closed the Strait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The White House demanded Wednesday that the channel be reopened and sought to keep peace talks on track. The U.S. and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the agreement, and world leaders expressed relief, even as more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries. Israel intensified its attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, killing at least 182 people in one of the deadliest days in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.