Shortly after 2pm on 8 April, it seemed that Beirut was hit by an earthquake. Within 10 minutes, multiple apartment buildings were obliterated, leaving in their wake mounds of rubble and shattered glass, pulverized concrete and twisted metal – and hundreds of dead and wounded bodies.
In those minutes, Israel had carried out one of the worst mass killings in Lebanon’s history. Dozens of Israeli warplanes dropped bombs and missiles on 100 targets across a country roughly the size of Connecticut, striking Beirut, the Bekaa valley and southern Lebanon. By the time rescue crews finished digging out mangled remains from the rubble two days later, the Lebanese health ministry’s toll stood at 357 dead and more than 1,200 injured. But even that is not a final accounting of the day’s casualties because health officials were still struggling to identify remains and conduct DNA tests.
The Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah “command centers” and other military infrastructure, eventually claiming to have killed more than 250 Hezbollah “operatives and commanders” without offering evidence. The attacks hit some of Beirut’s busiest commercial streets and residential neighborhoods, including a building that houses one of the city’s best-known nut roasteries. The Israeli military named its bombing campaign Operation Eternal Darkness. The Lebanese called it Black Wednesday.
