Beirut, Apr 08: Israeli strikes hit several dense commercial and residential areas in central Beirut Wednesday afternoon without warning, hours after a ceasefire was announced in the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Israel has said the agreement does not extend to its war with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, although mediator Pakistan said it does.

Israel’s military called it the largest coordinated strike in the current war, striking more than 100 Hezbollah targets within 10 minutes in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa valley.

Black smoke towered over several parts of the seaside capital. Booms interrupted the honking of traffic on what had been a blue-sky afternoon. Ambulances raced toward open flames. At least one apartment building was struck. Emergency responders searched charred vehicles.

It was not immediately clear how many people were killed or wounded, but several strikes were in busy commercial locations, causing panic in the streets.

Israel’s military said it had targeted missile launchers, command centres and intelligence infrastructure and accused Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields.

“The State of Lebanon and its civilians must refuse Hezbollah’s entrenchment in civilian areas and its weapons build-up capabilities,” the military said in a statement.

Israel has rarely struck central Beirut since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war on March 2 but has regularly struck southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Before the wave of new strikes, a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that the group was giving a chance for mediators to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon, but “we have not announced our adherence to the ceasefire since the Israelis are not adhering to it.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment publicly.

The Hezbollah official said the group will not accept a return to the pre-March 2 status quo, when Israel carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon despite a ceasefire being nominally in place since the last full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November 2024.

“We will not accept for the Israelis to continue behaving as they did before this war with regards to attacks,” he said. “We do not want this phase to continue.”

Hezbollah had fired missiles across the border days after the US and Israel attacked Iran, sparking a regional war. Israel responded with widespread bombardment of Lebanon and a ground invasion.

Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 1,530 people in Lebanon, including more than 100 women and 130 children. The Israeli military has said it has killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters. More than one million people have been displaced in Lebanon.

Early Wednesday, after the ceasefire in Iran was announced, many displaced people sleeping in tents on the streets of Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon began packing their belongings in preparation to return to their homes.

That was before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the military would press on in Lebanon.

At a sprawling displacement camp on Beirut’s waterfront, families whiplashed by the conflicting statements expressed confusion and despair.

“We can’t take this anymore, sleeping in a tent, not showering, the uncertainty,” said Fadi Zaydan, 35. He and his parents had prepared to head back to the southern city of Nabatieh before Netanyahu’s comments stopped them in their tracks.

“But we’ll be targeted if we go home,” Zaydan said. His family decided to wait things out for now in Sidon, a bit closer to home.

New Delhi, Apr 08: The US and Israeli war against Iran could wipe out nearly $200 billion worth of economic growth across the Middle East, says a new United Nations study.

The Military escalation in the Middle East  is likely to cost economies of the region from 3.7 to 6 percent of their collective Gross Domestic Product(GDP),a staggering loss of 194 billion dollars.

This would be coupled with an estimated rise in unemployment  and a loss of over 3.6 million jobs. These reversals will push around four  million people into poverty, as per the study.

This is in addition to  600 million dollar per day losses incurred by various Arab airlines and tourism related businesses. Arab airlines lost millions  due to cancellations of flights, closed airspace and reduced visitors’ confidence. Major  hubs like Dubai, Riyadh and Doha  experienced  flight disruptions, with hotel occupancy impacted, leading to huge revenue loss.

The UN Agency agency studied a number of different scenarios to determine how the conflict, which began on Feb. 28, might affect countries in the region. The study indicated that the damage could be profound. “A short-lived military escalation in the Middle East could generate profound and widespread socio-economic impacts across the Arab States region.”

The overall loss could result in the regional unemployment rate rising by as much as four percentage points, costing some 3.6 million jobs and pushing as many as four million people into poverty, the study says.

“This crisis rings alarm bells for countries of the region,” Abdullah Al Dardari, the UN Assistant Secretary General of  the UNDP Arab said in a statement.

The hardest-hit regions would be concentrated in Gulf Cooperation Council countries and in the Levant, with each region set to lose more than 5.2% of their GDP. The likes of Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are suffering from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is preventing them from exporting much of their oil and natural gas.

Qatar and Kuwait could each see their GDP contract by 14% this year should the conflict continue through to the end of April, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates.

That’d be the worst economic slump for those two countries since the early 1990s, when Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait triggered the Gulf War.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE would fare better given their ability to re-route some oil flows away from the Hormuz waterway. But they would still likely see GDP drop by about 3% and 5%, respectively, in what would be the biggest economic hit since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

The conflict, now in its second month, has already sent global energy prices soaring, unnerving the global economy.  The closure of the Strait of Hormuz was raising food and fertilizer prices in a way that could hit poorer countries particularly hard.

Meanwhile, a separate analysis  from UNDP  found the war will trigger a sharp economic contraction in Iran, slashing GDP by as much as 10.4% and potentially pushing more than 3.5 million people into poverty. The report said airstrikes on Iran have “damaged homes, schools, health facilities, and essential services.”

Washington, Apr 08: US President Donald Trump in a social media post declared the ceasefire agreement a “big day for World Peace” and that the US “will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz.”

“There will be lots of positive action!” Trump predicted in his post.

“Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process. We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just hangin’ around’ in order to make sure that everything goes well. I feel confident that it will.”

Trump’s message on his Truth Social website signals Washington’s concern about Iran maintaining its chokehold over the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which 20% of all oil and natural gas passes in peacetime.