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‘Even the street cats ran’: Inside Israel’s deadliest attack on Beirut
Beirut, Lebanon – Em Walid was in the clothing shop she owns in central Beirut when the sound of explosions rang out.
“Even the street cats outside started running,” she said, after Israel carried out its heaviest and deadliest air attacks on Lebanon in years.
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At least 254 people were killed and more than 1,160 were injured in dozens of attacks on Beirut, its suburbs, the south of the country and the eastern Bekaa Valley. There are fears the toll could rise as more victims are recovered from the rubble following the strikes – a sharp escalation since Israel ramped up its attacks on Lebanon early last month amid its joint war with the United States against Iran.
The strikes came hours after a Pakistani-negotiated ceasefire between the US and Iran took effect. There was initial confusion about Lebanon’s place in the two-week truce, with Pakistan and Iran insisting it was part of the agreement.
Israel and the US, however, argued otherwise. Speaking to US media, US President Donald Trump said Lebanon was a “separate skirmish”, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the ceasefire “does not include Lebanon”.
“Netanyahu wants to take advantage of the fluid situation to maximise operational achievements in Lebanon,” Dania Arayssi, a senior analyst at New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, told Al Jazeera.
“He must take into account that a US-Iran deal might include ceasing the war on Iranian proxies, which would greatly complicate the Israeli war effort against Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
Israel intensified its war on Lebanon for the second time in less than two years in early March following a salvo of rockets launched by the Lebanese group Hezbollah. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah had ostensibly been in place since November 27, 2024, but Israel continued carrying out near-daily attacks that killed hundreds of Lebanese.
The Iran-backed group claimed its March 2 attack – its first response to more than a year of Israeli ceasefire violations – was retaliation for the US and Israeli assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei two days earlier, on the first day of the US-Israel war on Iran.
Since then, relentless Israeli bombardment and a ground invasion have killed some 1,700 people in Lebanon and forced more than 1.2 million from their homes.
In a statement, Hezbollah said it has a “right” to respond to the attacks, affirming “that the blood of the martyrs and the wounded will not be shed in vain, and that today’s massacres, like all acts of aggression and savage crimes, confirm our natural and legal right to resist the occupation and respond to its aggression”.
‘Just way too many of them’
The wave of attacks came as some of those displaced attempted to return to their homes in the south amid confusion over Lebanon’s inclusion in the ceasefire. Strikes happened across the country, including in parts of Beirut that had been spared over the past month and in 2024.
The first round included dozens of attacks in fewer than 10 minutes. The Israeli military claimed it attacked more than 100 Hezbollah headquarters and military targets, though many strikes were in densely populated residential areas.
No warnings were given.
Hospitals, frantically dealing with high casualty counts, started putting out calls for blood donations.
At the American University of Beirut Medical Center, in the Hamra neighbourhood, dozens heeded the call. Among those cramming the third-floor reception was a 20-year-old American University of Beirut student, majoring in philosophy. His family had fled Dahiyeh, in southern Beirut, when the attacks started in early March. They had taken refuge near the Basta neighbourhood, in the centre of the capital.
He was at the university, near the hospital, when the first rounds of attack happened.
“I heard several explosions,” the student, who did not give his name, said. “There were just way too many of them.”
The student recalled looking up and seeing smoke rising in the distance in multiple places around the city. Reports began coming in of attacks all over the nation. There was one near his aunt’s place in the Aley district, about a half-hour drive from Beirut, he said. She was fine – but a neighbour had been killed.
In the Manara neighbourhood, near Beirut’s seafront, Najib Merhe smoked a cigarette and chatted with neighbours. An Israeli attack had destroyed an apartment a few floors above his restaurant, Hani’s, a long-standing, popular burger joint.
He was not on site when the attack happened, but his son was. Luckily, he was unharmed.
“People are afraid,” Merhe said. “This kind of situation no one can afford nor endure.”
Across the street, the glass facade of his restaurant had been destroyed. Light fixtures hung from the ceilings. People swept glass on the street, and old men walking along the seafront gathered to look at the hole in the wall where the apartment had been just a couple of hours earlier.
Security forces had cordoned off the area and directed passersby to beware of falling glass from the adjacent building.
This was one of the smaller strikes. It was targeting a specific apartment. In other parts of town, Israel took down entire buildings.
Further down the street in Manara, a sweat-drenched member of Beirut’s civil defence forces sat in the back of his emergency response vehicle. “I heard ‘woooooo’ and then strikes all over the place,” he said, adding that he’d never seen anything like this before.
As the day continued, people feared Israel was not finished. In televised remarks, Netanyahu said that his military’s operations against Hezbollah, and thus Lebanon, would continue.
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Published On 30 Apr 2026
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Two people were stabbed in north London on Wednesday in an attack that police have now formally declared a terrorist incident, prompting a major emergency response and an ongoing counterterrorism investigation.
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism chief, said the attack has been officially classified as terrorism as investigators work to determine the motive and whether the Jewish community was deliberately targeted.
Officers were called to Highfield Avenue in the Barnet borough at about 11:16 a.m. following reports of multiple stabbings, according to the Metropolitan Police. Local and armed officers responded alongside the London Ambulance Service.
A 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in custody, police said. Authorities are working to determine his nationality and background.
Two men, ages 76 and 34, were treated at the scene for stab wounds before being taken to a hospital, where they remain and are “being looked after,” Taylor said.
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A police officer at the scene where two people were stabbed Wednesday April 29, 2026 in a London neighborhood with a large Jewish community and a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over what authorities called an antisemitic attack. (Lucy North/PA via AP)
Police said the suspect also attacked responding officers before he was subdued with a Taser. No officers were injured.
Counterterrorism officers are leading the investigation, working with security services to establish the full circumstances and develop a complete intelligence picture, Taylor said.
“Whilst I must stress this investigation is at an early stage, we are working quickly to understand exactly what happened,” Counter Terrorism Policing head Laurence Taylor said.
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The stabbing unfolded in the Barnet area, near Golders Green, which is known for its large Jewish community. Authorities have indicated the case is being treated as a potentially antisemitic incident, though motive has not been confirmed.
The stabbing unfolded in the Barnet area, near Golders Green, which is known for its large Jewish community, and police said one line of inquiry is whether the attack deliberately targeted London’s Jewish community, though a motive has not been confirmed.
A statement posted on X by Shomrim, a volunteer neighborhood watch group in Orthodox Jewish communities, said a man was seen “armed with a knife” on Golders Green Road and was detained by members before police arrived. The group claimed the suspect attempted to target Jewish members of the public — a detail police have not independently confirmed.
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Shomrim said two victims were treated by Hatzola, a volunteer emergency medical service.
Police at the scene where two people were stabbed Wednesday April 29, 2026 in a London neighborhood with a large Jewish community and a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over what authorities called an antisemitic attack. (Lucy North/PA via AP)
Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams said officers “swiftly Tasered and arrested the suspect before he could cause further harm,” adding that investigators are “considering all possible motives” and will maintain a visible police presence in the area.
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Williams said police are “aware of the significant distress and concern this incident is likely to cause,” and will remain in the area to carry out inquiries and reassure residents.
The attack comes amid heightened concern over antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom. Authorities are examining recent incidents in London but have not established any direct connection.
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the violence, calling attacks on Jewish residents “an attack on Britain,” while London Mayor Sadiq Khan said there is “no place for antisemitism” in the city.
Conservative MP Kemi Badenoch said, “Jewish people in our country are under constant attack. This is no longer a growing pattern. There is an epidemic of violence against Jewish people. It is now a national emergency and needs to be treated as such by the Government and public authorities.”
Dov Forman, a Golders Green resident and Holocaust educator, described the attack as part of what he sees as a broader and deeply concerning trend.
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Police officers work by cordon at the junction of Golders Green Road and the North Circular Road, in the Golders Green neighborhood of north London, on April 29, 2026. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
“Yet again, terror has been brought to our doorstep here in Golders Green, in the heart of London’s Jewish community,” Forman said. “Earlier today, two visibly Jewish men were stabbed in what is being described as an antisemitic attack. For many, this is not being seen as an isolated act of violence, but as part of a broader and deeply troubling pattern. There is growing concern that extemist rhetoric and Islamist extremism, including calls to ‘globalize the intifada,’ has helped fuel an environment in which hatred against Jews is increasingly normalized, unchecked, and dangerously emboldened.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he was “horrified by yet another violent attack on Jews in broad daylight on the streets of London” and called for urgent action.
“No Jew anywhere in the world should be a target because of their faith,” Herzog said, adding that authorities must act “before the next antisemitic attack occurs.”
Authorities urged anyone with information to contact police as the investigation continues.
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The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent Gaza war, according to the Community Security Trust. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Published on •Updated
Two people were stabbed in north London on Wednesday, Jewish groups said, following a series of arson attacks targeting Jewish sites in the area, as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident “deeply concerning.”
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A man was arrested after he was seen running with a knife “attempting to stab Jewish members of the public,” the Shomrim Jewish neighbourhood watch said on social media.
It added that two people were stabbed and were being treated by Hatzola, a Jewish volunteer ambulance service.
The incident happened in Golders Green, a part of London that is home to a large Jewish community.
“There has been a knife attack today in Golders Green. The suspect has been arrested,” the Community Security Trust added on X.
“We are working closely with the police and urge anyone with information to contact the police, Shomrim and CST immediately,” said the charity, which provides safety advice and security to Jewish groups and buildings such as synagogues.
Starmer told lawmakers in parliament that a police investigation was underway and “we all need to…be absolutely clear in our determination to deal with any of these offences, the like of which we have seen too much recently”.
London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan condemned the attack and confirmed that police had arrested someone.
“There has been an appalling attack on two Jewish Londoners in Golders Green. The police have made an arrest and I’d like to thank all the emergency services and heroic volunteers…for their swift response,” Khan said in a post on X.
“London’s Jewish community have been the target of a series of shocking antisemitic attacks. There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society.”
The incident comes in the wake of a spate of arson attacks on synagogues and community sites in north London in recent weeks.
The first attack in late March saw four ambulances belonging to the Hatzola charity set ablaze.
Other incidents have followed, including an attack on the Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow as well as the premises of a Jewish charity.
Last week, the Finchley Reform Synagogue was targeted.
Police have arrested 26 people for the various attacks, launched since the start of the US-Iran war on Iran on 28 February.
Many of the incidents have been claimed by a little-known group, believed to be linked to Iran, called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), meaning The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand.
Israel’s foreign ministry urged the UK government to take swift action against antisemitism after the stabbings.
“After attacks on synagogues, Jewish institutions, community ambulances and now Jews targeted in Golders Green, the UK government can no longer claim this is under control,” the ministry wrote on X.
“Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s statements are no substitute for confronting the roots of antisemitism festering across United Kingdom…Enough words. The UK must act decisively and urgently.”
Additional sources • AFP
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