At 14:15 local time on 8 April 2026, Israel launched a massive wave of strikes against Lebanon – just hours after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran to pause fighting in the Gulf region.
Israel said it struck 100 targets in 10 minutes, dashing hopes in Lebanon that the pause in fighting in Iran would end the violence there too.
The latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah – the Lebanese militia and political party that is funded and armed by Iran – started on 2 March after the group fired rockets into Israel, which responded with widespread air strikes and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
Since then, more than 2,600 people in Lebanon have been killed, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, and roughly a fifth of the population displaced, the UN says.
The BBC’s Nawal Al-Maghafi has been piecing together what happened that day and meeting people who lost loved ones on one of the deadliest chapters in the country’s recent history.
