BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon reeled Thursday after the deadliest day of the renewed war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, with the death toll exceeding 300 people as more remains were pulled from rubble and bodies identified at hospitals. Meanwhile, Israel made the surprise announcement of authorizing direct talks with Lebanon, despite their lack of diplomatic ties. Israeli attacks continued.
The Health Ministry said that 1,150 people were also wounded in the widespread strikes that rocked Lebanon on Wednesday, including in busy parts of Beirut.
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A Lebanese civil defense worker looks on as an excavator operates on the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A Lebanese civil defense worker looks upward near the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Men inspect the damage to their home destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Lebanese civil defense workers inspect the rubble at the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A rescue worker holds money recovered from the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit a day ahead in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
There was no immediate response to the Israeli announcement from Lebanon, which had repeatedly proposed talks to end the war, or from Hezbollah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that talks would focus on disarming Hezbollah and “establishing peaceful relations” between the countries.
Negotiations are expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington, according to a person familiar with the plans. The talks are expected to be handled on the American side by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, and on the Israeli side by Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the situation.
A Lebanese diplomatic official familiar with the developments said that the country has not yet appointed someone to lead talks from Beirut, but Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is keen to have a temporary ceasefire when talks commence in parallel with those taking place between the United States and Iran mediated by Pakistan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Israel's announcement came hours after it had warned of escalation and said that it had killed an aide and nephew of Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, Ali Yusuf Harshi.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, earlier said that continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon would bring “explicit costs and STRONG responses,” while insisting that a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war extended to Lebanon. Israel has disagreed.
Israeli strikes on Wednesday, without warning, killed at least 203 people and wounded more than 1,000, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. Israel's military said that it targeted Hezbollah sites, but several strikes hit densely packed commercial and residential areas during rush hour, leading to widespread civilian casualties. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the attacks “barbaric.”
U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday said that Washington asked Israel to scale back attacks on Lebanon to ensure negotiations with Iran are successful.
In Beirut, people waited anxiously on the ragged edges of search and rescue work, shielding their faces from the dust. Exhausted firefighters sat on a charred car amid collapsed buildings.
Lebanese Civil Defense spokesperson Elie Khairallah told The Associated Press that a wounded woman was found alive overnight in the seaside neighborhood of Ain Mreisseh, and a man was found alive in his collapsed apartment building in the southern suburbs.
Mohammad Chehab, a Syrian man from Deir el-Zour, said that six of his 10 family members had been found dead in a destroyed building.
“They’ve been searching all day” for the rest, he said.
At hospitals, survivors and doctors described the carnage, while relatives gathered to identify bodies.
Abdul Rahman Mohammad, a Syrian who lost five relatives in the Hay al-Sellom neighborhood, waited at Rafik Hariri Hospital to retrieve the bodies of his mother, two sisters, brother and brother-in-law.
“They were struck without any warning. This is Israeli brutality,” he said.
Dr. Mohamad El Zaatari, director of the public hospital, said that it had treated 45 wounded people, including 10 cases in intensive care.
At the Makassed hospital, Rabee Koshok lay on his bed.
“I thought I was dead. What happened?" he recalled. “A big flash of light struck my face and eyes, and I found someone flying over and landing next to me. He was dead.”
Koshok had been in the commercial district of Corniche al Mazraa when a strike hit a nearby building.
Dr. Wael Jarrosh said that the hospital received around 70 wounded patients within 10 minutes of the blasts. Two people died and five remained hospitalized, including three in intensive care.
“This has destroyed us psychologically,” the doctor said.
Netanyahu earlier had said that strikes would proceed “with force, precision and determination." Israel's military has accused Hezbollah members of moving out of the group’s main areas of influence in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, and blending into civilian areas.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that his country would file an urgent complaint with the U.N. Security Council, calling the attacks a “blatant violation” of international and humanitarian law.
In a Cabinet session earlier Thursday, the Lebanese government announced a plan to demilitarize Beirut and deploy larger numbers of security patrols.
Even before the renewed war, Lebanon's government had sought Hezbollah's disarmament. The issue has inflamed tensions among Lebanese who are deeply divided over Hezbollah and its arsenal.
Melhem Khalaf, a reformist legislator representing Beirut, was critical of Israel’s strikes, but also of Hezbollah for dragging Lebanon back into war.
“All the targeted areas are safe residential Lebanese areas,” Khalaf said, while watching a bulldozer clear rubble. “What we are witnessing is a massacre against civilians."
More than a million people have been displaced by the war, many from the south and Dahiyeh. Israel's military has issued warnings for the population to leave those areas, followed by heavy bombardment.
Israel has also launched a ground invasion in the border region. The death toll in Lebanon has reached 1,739, the health ministry said, with 5,873 wounded.
Meanwhile, the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria returned to service Thursday, five days after the Israeli military warned of plans to strike it, alleging that Hezbollah was using it to smuggle military equipment. Lebanese and Syrian authorities denied the claim.
More than 200,000 people have fled Lebanon into Syria since the war resumed.
Sally Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut. Ali Sharafeddine and Hussein Malla in Beirut, and Ghaith AlSayed in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
A Lebanese civil defense worker looks on as an excavator operates on the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A Lebanese civil defense worker looks upward near the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Men inspect the damage to their home destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Lebanese civil defense workers inspect the rubble at the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A rescue worker holds money recovered from the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit a day ahead in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A tentative U.S.-Iran ceasefire is faltering after Israel pounded Beirut and as Iran maintains its grip on the Strait of Hormuz while truce talks remain uncertain.
Both Tehran and Washington are claiming victory and exerting pressure, with talks on a permanent deal set to begin soon in Islamabad and U.S. Vice President JD Vance set to lead the U.S. delegation.
Israeli strikes made Wednesday the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began, with more than 300 people killed. There are lingering disagreements over whether the ceasefire covers the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Iran is warning of “STRONG responses” if attacks on its militant ally don’t stop.
Israel-Lebanon negotiations are expected next week in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had approved direct talks, while the Lebanese government did not immediately respond. Netanyahu said there is no ceasefire in Lebanon and his country will keep striking Hezbollah.
Although the Strait of Hormuz is closed, there were no reports of strikes inside Iran or attacks against Israel or neighboring Gulf Arab nations, leaving Lebanon as the only country where the conflict is still burning.
Here is the latest:
The ongoing war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is far from the first conflict between them. The two have an enmity that goes back more than four decades, with outbursts of fighting or outright war punctuated by periods of tense calm.
Here is a timeline of some significant events in the hostilities between the two:
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A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers.
Calls are increasing in Congress for investigations into the prediction market platform Polymarket after the latest instance where groups of anonymous traders made strategic, well-timed bets on a major geopolitical event hours before it occurred.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from New York who sits on the House Financial Services Committee as well as the subcommittee on digital assets and financial technology, sent a letter Thursday to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission demanding the regulator review and investigate these well-timed trades.
“This pattern raises serious concerns that certain market participants may have had access to material nonpublic information regarding a market-moving geopolitical event,” Torres wrote. The letter was shared exclusively with the AP.
▶ Read more
The U.S. president said Netanyahu agreed to dial back Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon ahead of peace talks in Pakistan.
“I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview.
Wednesday was the deadliest day of Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the war began.
Netanyahu on Thursday said there’s no ceasefire in Lebanon, and Israel will keep striking Iran-backed Hezbollah militants there until security is restored in northern Israel. But he said he authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” aimed at disarming Hezbollah.
The Israeli military also said it had begun striking Hezbollah launch sites in Lebanon on Thursday evening.
Trump says Iranian leaders are more amendable to dealmaking in private conversations than they are in their public statements.
The Iranians “talk much differently when you’re at a meeting than they do to the press. They’re much more reasonable,” Trump told NBC News during a phone interview. “They’re agreeing to all the things that they have to agree to. Remember, they’ve been conquered. They have no military.”
He added: “If they don’t make a deal, it’s going to be very painful.”
The president also said he’s “very optimistic” about the prospects of reaching a peace deal during talks in Pakistan.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei says the Iranian people are the “definitive victors” in the conflict.
“Today, it is clear before everyone’s eyes, the dawn of the Islamic Republic’s emergence as a great power while the evil is facing the downhill slope of weakness,” he said in a statement read by an anchor on state TV.
Khamenei has not been seen or heard in public since he replaced his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war.
The younger Khamenei also mentioned the upcoming ceasefire talks with the U.S. and pledged there would be a “new era” in the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. has demanded that Iran reopen the strategic waterway as part of the ceasefire.
Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, speaking to troops inside Lebanon, said the army’s mission is to “continue deepening the damage and to continue weakening Hezbollah.” He said the objective is to remove the direct threat to residents of northern Israel.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, issued a statement Thursday outlining the dire access issues for medical assistance in Beirut’s Jnah area after a series of deadly Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours.
He said that the Israeli military evacuation order covers two major hospitals including Rafik Hariri, the main public hospital in Beirut. These facilities, according to Ghebreyesus, have been crucial for the hundreds of civilians who need assistance. The order also includes five shelters that are currently accommodating more than 5,000 people.
“At this time, no alternative medical facilities are available to receive approximately 450 patients from the two hospitals (including 40 patients in the ICU), rendering their evacuation operationally unfeasible,” he posted on X. “Both facilities are operating at full capacity, including treating the injured from the strikes of 8 April.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and welcomed potential Israel-Lebanon talks, saying there is “no military solution” to the conflict, according to his spokesman.
Ongoing Israeli military activity jeopardizes the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, adding that Israeli evacuation orders in Beirut’s southern suburbs cover U.N. sites, refugee camps, aid hubs, a major public hospital, and 13 shelters hosting over 6,000 displaced people.
Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Islamabad’s representative at the U.N., told a group of reporters Thursday that he doesn’t know why there was confusion about Lebanon being included in the ceasefire deal agreed to by U.S., Israel and Iran, when it was “clearly” cited in the prime minister’s statement.
“I believe this will be addressed also as part of these discussions, because there are many points on the agenda,” Ahmad said about the planned talks in Islamabad this weekend. “I think we should not let anything come in the way of these talks, which are very important.”
Increased risks to shipping in the Mideast have forced vessels to change their routes, making trips 14 days longer on average, according to ALIS, an Italy-based logistics services association of 2,500 companies globally.
The ordinary insurance costs related to a ship’s value have also gone up by about 10% during the war, ALIS vice president Marcello Di Caterina told The Associated Press.
He warned that the Iran crisis could have a more devastating impact on the shipping industry than the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a video statement, the Israeli leader says his country will keep striking Hezbollah until security is restored in northern Israel.
He confirmed that he is opening direct negotiations with Lebanon, the aim or which are Hezbollah’s disarmament and a sustainable peace agreement.
Jean Arnault, the U.N. secretary-general’s personal envoy for the Iran war, met Thursday with an Iranian deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, as the diplomat makes his way through countries impacted by the conflict.
Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesperson, said Arnault heard Iranian officials’ “views on the way forward” as a shaky day-old ceasefire holds. He also met with representatives from the Iranian Red Crescent, who took him on a tour of some of the sites damaged by weeks of U.S.-Israeli strikes, including a university that was destroyed and an apartment block.
Asked if Arnault or any U.N. personnel will be playing a role in the upcoming negotiations in Pakistan, Dujarric said that world body is currently discussing with all parties “the structural role that we can play” in bringing an end to this conflict.
Correction: This post has been updated to correct that the U.N. misidentified one of Iran’s deputy foreign ministers. He is Kazem Gharibabadi, not Majid Takht-Ravanchi.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said the decision to accept a ceasefire was made unanimously by top officials and approved by the supreme leader.
In a statement posted Thursday on the Telegram messaging app, he said the ceasefire “is not a sign of weakness but a way to solidify Iran’s proud victories,” adding that the pause in fighting followed more than a month of Iranian public resilience and support.
House Democrats gathered at the U.S. Capitol and lambasted the Trump administration’s ceasefire negotiations with Iran as chaotic and unworkable, and characterized the president’s threats about wiping out a civilization as the musings of madness.
The lawmakers warned they would keep proposing resolutions to end the war, and use their votes to block any requests from the administration for more money to fund it.
“It’s clear that their ability to negotiate with Iran is nonexistent,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland.
He called Trump’s plans for tolls on the strait particularly outrageous.
“How did we end up at a point where he’s talking about a joint venture with Iran with respect to charging tolls at the Strait of Hormuz?” he asked.
Rep. Madeleine Dean from Pennsylvania, who supports efforts to force Trump to step aside under the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, pointed back to the president’s days of escalatory rhetoric.
“The president brought the entire globe to watch his madness,” she said.
Israel said it launched 100 strikes in 10 minutes across Lebanon on Wednesday, targeting what they said were Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure. The strikes hit busy residential and commercial areas without warning.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said the death toll is likely to rise as search and rescue teams continue to find remains under the rubble, and as more people identify dozens of bodies at hospitals.
It was the deadliest day in over a month of war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group. Around 1,150 people were wounded.
Israel-Lebanon negotiations are expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The talks are expected to be handled on the American side by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, and on the Israeli side by Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the situation.
It was not immediately clear whom Lebanon was sending.
Axios first reported the timing and location of the talks.
— By Matthew Lee
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives made a quick but unsuccessful effort Thursday to pass a bill that would force Trump to get congressional approval before carrying out any more attacks on Iran.
The effort had no chance of passage during a short, minutes-long “pro forma session” of the House during which legislative business is rarely conducted.
But that didn’t stop Democrats from trying to make the point that they oppose the war in Iran.
Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Democrat from Maryland, tried to force a vote on the resolution, but Rep. Christopher Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, declared the House was adjourned.
“Let us vote!” yelled Rep. James Walkinshaw, a Democrat from Virginia.
“The time has come. The time has come,” Ivey said.
Democrats will look to force a vote on the measure again next week, when the full House has returned from a two-week stint back in their congressional districts.
The NATO secretary-general said Tehran and Moscow have been working together on military technology, and alleged Iran has been sowing chaos in the region.
“Particularly when it comes to Iran and Russia, it is drone technology, it is other military technology,” Rutte said while giving a talk at the Reagan Center in Washington. “And the Russians are returning with money. And the money is being spent for Iran to create utter chaos.”
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey sees signs both sides are willing to compromise, including on Iran’s nuclear program and uranium enrichment.
Speaking in Ankara, he said there had been “certain changes” in negotiating positions and cited a global consensus that attacks on Iran were a “mistake” as reason for cautious optimism.
He warned that Israeli “provocations,” including its invasion of Lebanon, could threaten talks that are due to start Saturday in Pakistan.
Fidan said the region is “tired of occupations and wars,” urged reconciliation between Iran and Gulf states and said “international players” should be ready to curb Israel’s “expansionism.”
He also suggested the two-week ceasefire could be extended to allow talks to continue.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Thursday with the army chief, Asim Munir, ahead of further talks in Islamabad.
Sharif’s office said both men stressed the need for all parties to maintain the ceasefire.
In a joint statement, the countries also condemned “the unacceptable aggressive behavior” toward the soldiers and leaders of the U.N. force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.
The statement was read by Indonesia’s U.N. Ambassador Umar Hadi, whose country recently had three of its peacekeepers killed in southern Lebanon.
The statement said those responsible for attacks on peacekeepers must be held accountable, but did not identify any parties. A preliminary U.N. report blamed Israel for two of the killings and Hezbollah for one of them.
Noticeably missing from the list of signatories to the statement was the United States, Israel’s closest ally, which pushed for the U.N. Security Council to end the UNIFIL mission at the end of 2026.
The signatories reaffirmed support for UNIFIL, said attacks against peacekeepers may constitute war crimes, and called on the parties to urgently return to the 2024 ceasefire,
The NATO secretary-general said his meeting with Trump a day earlier included a “frank” and “candid” exchange.
Rutte acknowledged that European allies “were a bit slow” to provide logistical support.
“In fairness, they were also a bit surprised,” Rutte said. “To maintain the element of surprise for the initial strikes, President Trump opted not to inform allies ahead of time, and I understand that.”
He said some European countries have since provided support, including bases and logistics, to assist the U.S. military.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said allies are not “whistling past the graveyard” and understand the need for major changes demanded by Trump, amid his threats of a U.S. withdrawal from the alliance.
Rutte, speaking at the Reagan Center a day after meeting Trump, said Europe is taking on a greater share of defense and moving toward a more balanced partnership.
He also acknowledged some allies were slow to assist in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and said they were caught off guard because Trump did not notify them in advance.
The Israeli prime minister says he gave the order in response to requests from Lebanon and that talks would focus on disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between the neighboring countries.
He welcomed a call by Lebanon’s prime minister to demilitarize Beirut.
There was no immediate response from the Lebanese government to the announcement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, the ministry said.
Lavrov welcomed the news of the Iran-U.S. ceasefire and “emphasized that Moscow firmly believes that these agreements, as announced by Pakistani mediators, have a regional dimension and, in particular, extend to Lebanon,” according to the ministry’s readout of the call.
Lavrov also expressed hope for successful peace talks and reiterated “Russia’s readiness to assist in finding solutions.”
Araghchi “thanked the Russian Federation for its principled position in the U.N. Security Council during the discussion of the situation in the Persian Gulf,” the readout said.
A day after Israel’s deadliest strikes killed over 200 people in Lebanon, Abdul Rahman Mohammad, a Syrian who lost family members in the Hay al-Sellom neighborhood, waited at Rafic Hariri Hospital morgue to retrieve the bodies of his mother, two sisters, brother and brother-in-law.
“They were struck without any warning. This is Israeli brutality,” he said. “I’m just waiting for the Syrian embassy procedures so I can take them back to Syria.”
Dr. Mohamad El Zaatari, director of the public hospital, said the facility had treated 45 people, including 10 critical cases in intensive care.
“The situation is difficult and the numbers are large, but things are gradually taking the right path,” he said.
A rescue worker holds money recovered from the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit a day ahead in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People play on the beachfront in Tel Aviv, Israel, after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A rescue worker extinguishes burning cars at the site of an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A woman holds her dog as she walks past burned cars a day after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Women mourn during a ceremony marking the 40th day since the killing of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the cement barricades are placed on the street leading to his residence in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A government supporter weeps during a mourning ceremony marking the 40th day since the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strikes in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A damaged car is seen in an area as Lebanese civil defense workers search for victims in the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A man reacts as he watches an excavator remove debris at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A man stands next to an apartment building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
FILE - Two police officers walk in front of an anti-U.S. billboard depicting American aircraft being caught by Iranian armed forces in a fishing net beneath the words in Farsi, "The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, The entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground," in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
Ali, 4, holds a toy horse next to the tent his family uses as a shelter after fleeing Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Firefighters, first responders, and volunteers work on smoldering debris at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
