World

Israel Strikes 254 Dead in Lebanon Hours After Ceasefire - and Iran Closes Hormuz Again

Hours after a U.S.-Iran ceasefire was announced, Israel launched its largest assault on Lebanon since the war began, killing at least 254 people and wounding more than 1,165 in a single day. Iran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz again, erasing in hours the trade relief the world had barely begun to celebrate.

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⚡ How This Impacts You

How This Impacts You: Every time Hormuz closes, energy prices, shipping costs and food inflation move higher for everyone — not just the countries at war. The brief drop in oil prices after the ceasefire had already raised hopes that fuel bills, freight costs and grocery prices might ease. Those hopes are now suspended again. For displaced Lebanese families, the situation is more immediate: 1.2 million people have lost their homes, hospitals are overwhelmed, and a corridor that people believed was finally safe to return to was struck within hours of a peace deal being announced. The longer this cycle of ceasefire and renewed violence continues, the deeper the damage to global trade, regional stability and ordinary lives on all sides.

FLASHFEED Desk · 09 Apr 2026, 00:24:17 · Updated: 24 May 2026, 03:53:38 · 4 min read

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The ceasefire ink had barely dried when Israel launched over 100 strikes across Lebanon within 10 minutes on Wednesday, hitting dense residential and commercial neighborhoods in central Beirut without warning. Lebanon's Civil Defence confirmed at least 254 dead and 1,165 wounded — the highest single-day toll of the entire Israel-Hezbollah war. More than 1,530 people have now been killed in Lebanon since March 2, including over 100 women and 130 children, with 1.2 million people displaced from their homes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ceasefire with Iran simply did not apply to Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called it the largest blow to Hezbollah since the 2024 pager operation. But residents and Beirut municipal officials at the scenes of the strikes told journalists the buildings hit were ordinary homes and shops — an apartment behind a nut store in the Corniche al Mazraa neighborhood, a residential block in Tyre. The UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk called the carnage horrific. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the attacks barbaric. The Arab League accused Israel of sabotaging the ceasefire deal before it could even take hold. The Strait of Hormuz, which carries roughly one-fifth of the world's oil, had only just been promised safe for transit as part of the Iran deal. That hope collapsed within hours. Iran closed the strait again in direct response to the Lebanon strikes, and the United States immediately demanded reopening. The brief window that had sent oil prices down 16% and stock futures up 2% suddenly looked fragile. Shipping firms, energy traders and governments that had started pricing in normalization were forced to reverse course. The world had been given one day of relief — and lost it.