Lebanon digs for survivors after deadliest day of renewed war between Israel and Hezbollah

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon reeled Thursday after the deadliest day in more than five weeks of renewed war between Israel and Hezbollah, as rescue workers in Beirut and elsewhere searched for survivors and bodies and Israel warned of escalation.

Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed at least 203 people and wounded more than 1,000, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Israel's military said it targeted sites of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, but several strikes hit densely packed commercial and residential areas without warning during rush hour, leading to widespread civilian casualties.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the attacks “barbaric.” Israel said the ceasefire in the Iran war doesn't apply in its fight against Hezbollah.

Lebanese Civil Defense spokesperson Elie Khairallah told The Associated Press that a wounded woman was found alive under the rubble overnight in the seaside Beirut neighborhood of Ain Mreisseh, and a man was found alive in his collapsed apartment building in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Others waited anxiously. Mohammad Chehab, a Syrian man from Deir el-Zour, said six of his 10 family members had been found dead in a destroyed building.

“They’ve been searching all day” for the rest, he said, watching rescue workers dig through the rubble.

At hospitals, survivors and doctors described the carnage.

“I thought I was dead. What happened? A big flash of light struck my face and eyes and I found someone flying over and landing next to me. He was dead,” said Rabee Koshok from his bed at Makassed hospital in Beirut. He had been in the commercial district of Corniche al Mazraa when a strike hit a nearby building.

Dr. Wael Jarrosh said the hospital had received around 70 injured patients within 10 minutes of the blasts. Two people died and five remain hospitalized, including three in intensive care, Jarrosh said.

“This has destroyed us psychologically,” the doctor added. “We have to stay prepared so that we can serve our families and the injuries that come in.”

Israel said Thursday it killed an aide and nephew of Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, Ali Yusuf Harshi, in the strikes. Hezbollah did not immediately comment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said strikes would proceed “with force, precision and determination." Israel's military has accused Hezbollah members of moving out of the group’s main areas of influence in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, and blending into civilian areas.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Lebanon will file an urgent complaint with the U.N. Security Council, calling the attacks a “blatant violation” of international and humanitarian law.

Salam added that the Lebanese cabinet has ordered security forces to tighten control over the capital by “enhancing the state’s full authority across Beirut and restricting arms to legitimate forces.” Even before the renewed war, Lebanon's government had been seeking Hezbollah's disarmament.

More than a million people have been displaced by the war, many from the south and Dahiyeh. Israel's military has issued sweeping warnings for the population to leave those areas, followed by heavy bombardment.

The Israeli army has also launched a ground invasion in the border region.

Meanwhile, the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria returned to service Thursday, five days after the Israeli military warned of plans to strike it, alleging that Hezbollah was using it to smuggle military equipment. Lebanese and Syrian authorities denied the claim.

More than 200,000 people have fled Lebanon into Syria since the war resumed.

Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut. Associated Press journalists Kareem Chehayeb and Hussein Malla in Beirut and Ghaith AlSayed in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, contributed to this report.