By Middle East Correspondent
LONDON, (The Muslim News): At least 52 people were killed and 154 injured after Israeli warplanes carried out 221 airstrikes across Beirut and southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese authorities reported, marking a sharp escalation that draws the country deeper into the widening regional conflict triggered by the joint US–Israeli assault on Iran. The toll was revised upwards as rescue teams continued searching through the rubble. Israel has been bombing Lebanon since ceasefire agreement in November 2024.
The bombardment followed a Hezbollah claim that it had targeted a military site in northern Israel with rockets and drones, describing the strike as retaliation for ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon and the US–Israeli campaign against Iran over the weekend. Hezbollah claimed it attacked an Israeli military base, the Ramat David Airbase, located in northern Israel near Haifa, one of the Israeli Air Force’s main military airbases with drones. Israel responded with heavy strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon, despite a ceasefire agreed in late November 2024. Israeli operations have continued since, following a conflict that escalated into full-scale war by September 2024, leaving more than 4,000 dead and around 17,000 wounded.
Amid the renewed violence, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced that his government had banned Hezbollah’s military and security activities, restricting the group to political work and ordering the army to assert state control over weapons north of the Litani River. Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, he declared, “The state rejects any military or security actions launched from Lebanese territory.” He stressed that “the decision of war and peace rests exclusively with the state,” describing Hezbollah’s recent actions as “a violation of Cabinet decisions.” However, Lebanese army has been accused of failure to protect the country against Israeli attacks.
Hezbollah rejected the move. Mohammad Raad, head of its parliamentary bloc, accused the government of deepening divisions, saying it was unable to confront Israel while instead moving to “ban the rejection of aggression.”
US/Israel strikes against Iran has killed 550 people including 165 school girls
The escalation in Lebanon comes amid an unprecedented assault on Iran. Since Saturday, the United States and Israel have carried out large-scale strikes across the country, killing more than 550 people, according to Iranian authorities. At least 165 people, mainly school girls, were reported killed when warplanes struck a school in Minab, Hormozgan province.
Iran’s President, Masoud Pezeshkian, condemned the targeting of civilian sites. “Attacks on hospitals strike at life itself. Attacks on schools target a nation’s future. Targeting patients and children blatantly violates humanitarian principles,” he wrote on X. “The world must condemn it. I stand with my grieving nation. Iran will not remain silent or yield to these crimes.”
According to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency on March 1, U.S. and Israeli airstrikes hit Gandhi Hospital in Tehran, causing significant damage as staff worked to move patients to safety.
Tehran has responded with waves of drone and missile strikes against Israel, US assets, and Gulf states. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps reported targeting US naval facilities in Bahrain, Al-Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, and a US base in Kuwait. Gulf states reported intercepting most of the incoming drones and missiles, while in Iraq drones were reported near Baghdad International Airport.
In Israel, seven people were injured, one critically, when an Iranian missile struck Jerusalem late Sunday. The death toll from an earlier strike on a building in Beit Shemesh rose to nine, bringing total fatalities in Israel to 12 and injuries to more than 500 since Iran began its retaliation. Israel’s public broadcaster KAN reported that a nationwide state of emergency had been extended until March 12.
President Donald Trump said the US operation, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, was expected to last four to five weeks but could continue longer. In a video message, he urged Iranians to “seize this moment” and claimed Iran’s military command had collapsed, calling on security forces to accept immunity or face death.
Britain has not joined the offensive but signalled support for “defensive measures”. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK would allow the US to use British bases for a “specific and limited defensive purpose” to counter Iranian missile attacks across the Gulf, while ruling out participation in offensive action. However, UK has been shooting down Iranian missiles and drones in Iraq and Gulf countries.
[Photo: Smoke rises from the area after multiple powerful explosions occurred in several locations across Iran’s capital Tehran on March 2, 2026. Israel and the United States continue, new blasts were heard in the eastern and southern parts of the city, with smoke seen rising into the sky following the explosions.
Photojournalist: Fatemeh Bahrami/AA]
