People inspect a damaged car in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in Ramlet al-Baida at Corniche Beirut, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Claudia Greco TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
The death toll of an Israeli airstrike on the Ramlet al-Baida seafront in central Beirut killed at least12 people and wounded 28 others early Thursday, March 12, 2026 as Hezbollah launched more missiles at Israel.
According to reports by France 24, the strike targeted a vehicle near the public beach, an area where many displaced families have been sheltering in tents after fleeing bombings in other parts of Lebanon
An AFP correspondent at the scene saw a damaged motorcycle and two damaged cars, with the area sealed off by security forces.
Blood stains were on the sidewalk, with a small hole in the ground.
“We saw dead people on the ground,” said Aseel Habbaj, a displaced woman who had been sheltering in a nearby tent after fleeing Israeli bombings in other areas of Lebanon.
“We were all asleep in my tent, when suddenly we heard a noise,” Habbaj told AFP. “We jumped up and went to see what was happening,” before a second strike wounded her husband.
Her 40-year-old neighbor Dalal al-Sayed said she had opted to pitch her tent at the seaside after fleeing attacks in southern Lebanon “because the last thing we expected was Israel to hit Beirut”.
Hezbollah said early Thursday that it had fired off missiles at an Israeli military intelligence base in the suburbs of Tel Aviv and another military base south of Haifa.
Hezbollah
Hezbollah fighters “targeted the Glilot base (the headquarters of the 8200 Military Intelligence Unit)… in the Tel Aviv suburbs with a barrage of advance missiles,” the group said in a statement.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Israel has since launched air raids across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas.
Its offensive has killed more than 630 people, according to Lebanese authorities, while more than 800,000 people have registered as displaced, with around 126,000 of them staying in collective shelters.
Late Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to halt its ground offensive in Lebanon and for Iran-backed group Hezbollah to “immediately” stop attacks, after speaking with the country’s president Joseph Aoun.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said earlier that they had carried out a joint missile operation with its ally Hezbollah against targets in Israel.
In turn, the Israeli military said early Thursday that “over the past hours, the IDF has begun a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting terror infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization across Lebanon”.
It also said it hit “dozens of launchers” as well as Hezbollah intelligence and command sites in south Beirut.
It followed a string of Hezbollah statements saying its fighters fired barrages of rockets, advanced missiles and drones at towns, military bases and other locations, mainly in Israel’s north.
On Wednesday, Israel pounded south Beirut and the country’s south and east.
Authorities said a strike on an apartment in the densely populated Aisha Bakkar area in central Beirut wounded four people.
On Sunday, Israel hit a seafront hotel not far from Ramlet al-Bayda, saying it was targeting Iranian foreign operations officers. Iran later said the raid killed four of its diplomats.
France 24 / AFP
