Israel-Hezbollah Fighting Escalates Amid Iran War; Beirut Strike Pushes Lebanon Toll To 394

Last Updated:March 09, 2026, 20:04 IST

A Beirut hotel bombed, 394 dead including 83 children, and 517,000 forced to flee. Lebanon is burning. Here is what happened in the last 24 hours.

Israel struck a hotel in the heart of Beirut on Sunday, killing four people and wounding ten others, as Lebanon’s health minister confirmed that nearly 400 people have been killed across the country since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a week ago. The strike on central Beirut targeted what the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) described as five senior commanders of Iran’s Quds Force operating on Lebanese soil, and marked the first time Israel had hit the Lebanese capital’s city centre since the current phase of fighting began on 2 March.

The death toll, confirmed by Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine at a Sunday press conference, stood at 394, including 83 children and 42 women. In a separate statement, Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed said 517,000 displaced people had registered on a government website, a figure that captures the scale of the uprooting now under way across Lebanon. Hezbollah stronghold Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, has taken some of the heaviest blows, with multiple residential buildings flattened in overnight raids. Villages across southern Lebanon, including Kfar Kila, Houla, Kfar Shouba, Yaroun and Khiam, have been struck as well, according to the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL.

The IDF said on Monday that it had pushed ground troops deeper into southern Lebanon overnight, raiding the Rab al-Thalathine area west of the Misgav Am border community. The military described the advance as an “enhanced forward defence posture," aimed at clearing Hezbollah infrastructure and operatives from border villages. Since the fighting resumed, UNIFIL has tracked over 210 missiles fired from Lebanese territory into Israel. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon on Sunday, the first IDF fatalities since the new offensive began.

Hezbollah’s secretary-general Naim Qassem made clear the group has no intention of standing down. In a televised speech, Qassem said Hezbollah “will keep fighting" and described its operations as a “legitimate right" in response to Israeli and American aggression. He claimed the group had struck a naval base in Haifa and dispatched a drone swarm toward the city of Nahariya, and said one Israeli drone had been downed over Wadi Saluki in southern Lebanon. Qassem also called on domestic critics within Lebanon not to “stab the resistance in the back," pushing back against the government’s formal ban on Hezbollah military activities.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has broken openly with Hezbollah’s position, calling the group’s decision to fire rockets into Israel a “strategic mistake" and describing the attacks as “irresponsible acts outside the authority of the Lebanese state." On 2 March, Salam formally banned Hezbollah from carrying out military operations, though the group has continued to fire on Israel in open defiance of that order. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called French President Emmanuel Macron separately, urging him to press Israel to stop bombing Beirut’s southern suburbs and to work toward a ceasefire “as soon as possible," according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency.

French President Emmanuel Macron has taken an active diplomatic role, speaking with Netanyahu, Aoun and Salam in a bid to halt the fighting. “For Lebanon we must act. Everything must be done to prevent this country, so close to France, from once again being drawn into war," he wrote in a public post on X. Macron called on Israel to “refrain from any ground intervention or large-scale operation on Lebanese territory" and demanded Hezbollah “immediately cease its fire." He pledged armoured transport vehicles and logistical support for the Lebanese Armed Forces and said France was dispatching emergency humanitarian aid, including medicines and shelter supplies, for the hundreds of thousands displaced. Macron also said Lebanese authorities had given him a personal commitment to take full control of territory currently held by Hezbollah.

US President Donald Trump described the broader military campaign as going “unbelievably good" and said it would continue “a little" while longer. Trump confirmed he had spoken with Macron to discuss developments in the region but did not address Lebanon’s mounting civilian toll directly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a direct warning to the Lebanese government in a televised statement on 7 March. “It is your responsibility to enforce the ceasefire agreement and your responsibility to disarm Hezbollah. If you do not do so, Hezbollah’s aggression will bring catastrophic consequences upon Lebanon," he said. Netanyahu added that Israel has “an organised plan with many surprises" for the next phase of the campaign and promised to do “everything necessary" to protect Israeli communities.

Amnesty International on Sunday condemned Israel’s sweeping evacuation orders as “overly broad," saying they covered more than 100 towns and villages across the south and east of Lebanon and all of Beirut’s southern suburbs, displacing hundreds of thousands with nowhere safe to go.

With inputs from agencies

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