At least six people were killed and 24 others were injured in early morning Israeli strikes on Beirut, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel said it struck Hezbollah-related infrastructure in both the capital and the country’s south.
The Lebanese ministry said Beirut had been strike twice on Wednesday morning. At least one building in the city was levelled.
A building collapses after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s Bashoura neighbourhood early on March 18, 2026.
Fadel Itani/AFP via Getty Images
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy operating in Lebanon, had fired “dozens” of rockets toward Israel.
The IDF said it responded to those rockets by warning residents of Tyre, a southern coastal city, of impending strikes. Strikes on the city then destroyed what Israel described as a weapons-storage facility.
A damaged car at the site of a strike on a building in Burj el-Shamali, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tyre, Lebanon, March 18, 2026.
Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters
Israel said it also targeted in Beirut “additional assets” of the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, a group said to help finance Hezbollah’s operations.
“Alongside headquarters of the ‘Hamasin’ Division in southern Lebanon that were struck from the air and sea, the Navy struck a key terrorist in the Hezbollah terror organization in Beirut,” the IDF said in a statement early on Wednesday. “Prior to the strike, steps were taken to minimize the chance of harm to civilians, including advance warnings, use of precision munitions, and aerial observations.”
Israel said its military intends to “continue to act forcefully against the Hezbollah terror organization, which decided to join the campaign and operate under the auspices of the Iranian terror regime, and will not allow harm to civilians of the State of Israel.”