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'Nightmare for Civilians': Israel Inflicts 1,400+ Casualties on Lebanon War's Deadliest Day
"Civilians in Lebanon are already paying an unbearable price with children, health workers, and journalists amongst those killed—the latest attacks will only escalate this devastating human toll," said one campaigner.
Apr 09, 2026
Humanitarian campaigners, civil rights defenders, and progressive members of Congress were among those calling on the Trump administration to pressure Israel to stop bombing Lebanon after Israeli airstrikes killed or wounded more than 1,400 people—many of them civilians—on Wednesday.
In what Amnesty International called an "unprecedented escalation," the Israel Defense Forces said it carried out the “largest coordinated wave of strikes” of its renewed war on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Around 100 sites in the country were bombed in one 10-minute period alone in what the IDF dubbedr "Operation Eternal Darkness."
Lebanese officials said that at least 303 people were killed and 1,165 others wounded by Israeli strikes on Wednesday, the deadliest day of attacks since Israel resumed bombardment of Lebanon and likely since it started bombing its northern neighbor after the Hamas-led Palestinian attack of October 7, 2023.
While Lebanese authorities do not break down casualties according to combatant status, officials and residents of the capital city of Beirut said that civilians were the main victims of Wednesday's bombings, which targeted apartment towers and other civilian structures in numerous densely populated urban areas.
One witness, a woman named Fatima, told Amnesty International what she saw in the immediate aftermath of an IDF strike on a building across the street from her home in Beirut's Salim Salam neighborhood.
“It was apocalyptic," she said. "Bodies on the ground. Blood everywhere. I saw countless wounded adults and children. I walked further but it was the same scene in the other neighborhoods too. I did not know where to go. I just walked aimlessly trying to get as far as possible. It was a nightmare.”
Dr. Firass Abiad, a surgeon and wformer Lebanese health minister, told The Guardian that American University of Beirut Medical College, where he works, received about 70 patients at the same time, a situation he said was intentionally caused by Israel "to flood the health system."
“There was a 90-year-old who I just left a bit ago. He passed away from his wounds," he said. "There was nothing we could do. These are civilians who, without any warning, their whole apartment building was flattened. So you can imagine the severity of injuries that we’re getting.”
Shaden Fakih, a 24-year-old calisthenics trainer, described trying to find his friend who was inside a building when it was bombed. He couldn't locate his friend, but he was seen carrying an elderly woman from the rubble.
"There’s no Hezbollah here, the Israelis are just getting happy when they bomb people, it’s not about Hezbollah," Fakih said in an interview with The Guardian. “Just stop bombing us. If you want to kill Hezbollah, go for it, but don’t kill civilians, because you’re creating anger in us against Israel and we will have to act like Hezbollah just to defend our country. But I don’t want to do that, I just want to live in peace."
“It’s been the worst day since the war started," he added. "And what I’m most sad about is that my pretty Lebanon, our beautiful Lebanon, soon it will all be brought down to the ground.”
As Common Dreams reported, Israeli strikes have wiped out entire families in Lebanon and Iran. In Gaza, more than 2,700 families have been erased from the civil registry.
Responding to Wednesday's attacks, Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa regional director Heba Morayef said that “just hours after the world cautiously welcomed news of a US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran, in Lebanon the nightmare for civilians has become more terrifying."
“Even before today’s attack... more than 1,500 people had been killed and over a million people displaced from their homes across the country," Morayef continued, referring to Israel's bombardment of Lebanon after Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones southward in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, injured, or missing.
"Civilians in Lebanon are already paying an unbearable price with children, health workers, and journalists amongst those killed—the latest attacks will only escalate this devastating human toll," Morayef added. "These attacks are a reminder that states must immediately halt the transfer of arms and weapons to Israel given the overriding risk that they will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law."
The Washington, DC-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement late Wednesday, “Once again, Israel’s genocidal government is trying to derail a ceasefire and ensure peace does not succeed by slaughtering innocent civilians."
"The Trump administration must stop them from carrying out this brutal plan," the group added. "Israel has demonstrated time and again that it cannot be trusted to abide by peace agreements. It is time for our government to cut all support for Israel’s atrocities.“
These and other groups, as well as governments in the Mideast and beyond, and US progressives, are demanding that Lebanon be included in the ceasefire. Although Israel agreed to the truce, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza—asserts that the deal does not include Lebanon.
Iran categorically rejects Israel's claim and is using its leverage over the Strait of Hormuz to pressure Israel to reconsider its stance.
Some US progressives called for President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to stop attacking Lebanon, and for a suspension of American arms transfers to the IDF.
"It is unconscionable we continue to provide aid to Israel as they continue to murder civilians and violate international law in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank," Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said Thursday on Bluesky. "No more money to Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime."
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Peace Campaigners Demand Congress Stop Trump From Waging ‘Devastating’ War on Iran
"Like the votes before the Iraq War, this could be one of the most consequential foreign policy decisions in a generation."
Feb 19, 2026
Anti-war groups are turning up the pressure on Congress to support a war powers resolution that would limit President Donald Trump's ability to wage war against Iran.
Amid reports that the US is rapidly mobilizing military hardware to the Middle East, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced on Wednesday that they'd attempt to force a House vote on a resolution that would prohibit Trump from striking Iran without congressional authorization.
According to a Thursday conversation between Drop Site News journalist Jeremy Scahill and Robert Malley, a former senior US Middle East envoy and lead negotiator of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Trump's intention to launch a US attack on Iran is nearly a forgone conclusion at this point.
"Part of the strategy being discussed within the administration," said Scahill, based on sources and conversations over recent months, is that Trump and his team are putting an "ultimatum on the table," but there's actually not a belief that a real negotiation over terms is taking place.
"It's not actually playing out in public this way," said Scahill, "but what I understand is that Trump's people are basically saying to the Iranians: 'We're not just going to deal with the nuclear [issues] here. This has to involve ballistic missile capacity. It has to involve your alliances with armed resistance groups [in places like Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Gaza.]'"
"The Iranians have said these are red lines and they're not going to accept this," he continued. "So it seems like what's happening is that Trump is issuing an ultimatum, they know there is almost zero chance the Iranians are going to take it, and then they're going to bomb them. That's really what I'm hearing from inside sources."
Iran's response to Trump's bombing of three nuclear sites in June was measured, but Iranian officials have signaled they are not going to hold back in the event of a broader US strike.
Fouad Isadi, an Iranian professor with knowledge of the government's inner workings, told Scahill last month that in the event of a large-scale strike by Trump, the military was planning a retaliatory strike aimed at killing at least 500 US soldiers.
"We could see the Iranians really hit hard in a way that blows the Americans away on a psychological level and that Trump hasn't had to deal with before," Scahill said on Thursday. "I assume that President Trump's response would be even more enraged and even more brutal than anything one could imagine."
With hope for a deal between Trump and Iran dimming, anti-war groups are saying that Congress may be the only thing standing in the way of a massive conflict.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) urged Americans to contact their members of Congress to oppose what they called an "Israel First War on Iran," noting the heavy involvement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in pressuring President Donald Trump to pursue an aggressive, uncompromising posture toward Iran.
“We call on all Americans to tell their members of Congress to oppose another US regime change war; we call on the media to ask the tough questions it failed to ask in the march to the Iraq invasion; and we call on the Trump administration to put American interests first—not the interests of Netanyahu’s rogue, warmongering government," CAIR wrote in a statement published Thursday.
The Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker group, told its followers to bombard Congress with messages, warning that "strikes on Iran risk widespread civilian suffering inside Iran and could ignite a catastrophic regional war."
Alix Fraser, vice president of the anti-corruption group Issue One, said Trump's threats to carry out "unilateral military action" against Iran "is not an isolated incident but part of a broader troubling pattern."
"Without consulting Congress, the administration is practicing gunboat diplomacy and has gone so far with it as to bring about regime change in Venezuela," Fraser said. "Rep. Khanna’s and Rep. Massie’s bipartisan war powers Resolution is a good first step, but the problem of Congress ceding its war powers goes back decades."
Medea Benjamin, founder of the anti-war women's group CodePink, said that "regardless of how you feel about Iran’s government, another war in the Middle East would be devastating and avoidable," and put US troops "at grave risk of retaliation."
"We've seen this before in Iraq. We can't let history repeat itself," she said. "The people of Iran, whether they like their government or detest it, are terrified of a US attack."
"Congress must act now," she added. "Like the votes before the Iraq War, this could be one of the most consequential foreign policy decisions in a generation."
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'Vile and Un-American': Tuberville Blasted for Demanding Mass Expulsion of Muslims
Republican Senator from Alabama, said one critic, is "unfit for public office and should face censure and removal."
Dec 15, 2025
A Republican senator is getting blasted for a bigoted social media rant in which he declared that Islam is "not a religion" while advocating the mass expulsion of Muslims from the US.
In the wake of Sunday's horrific mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia, which left 16 people dead and was carried out by two men with suspected ties to the terrorist organization ISIS, Tuberville lashed out at Muslims and promoted their mass deportation.
"Islam is not a religion," Tuberville, currently a Republican candidate for Alabama governor, wrote on X. "It's a cult. Islamists aren't here to assimilate. They're here to conquer. Stop worrying about offending the pearl clutchers. We've got to SEND THEM HOME NOW or we'll become the United Caliphate of America."
Tuberville neglected to note that a Muslim man named Ahmed al Ahmed, a Syrian refugee who gained his Australian citizenship in 2022, tackled and disarmed one of the alleged shooters before they could fire more shots at the Jewish people who had gathered on Bondi Beach to celebrate Hanukkah.
Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that Tuberville's comments on Muslims were akin to those made by former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, an infamous segregationist who fought the US federal government's efforts to racially integrate state schools.
"Senator Tuberville appears to have looked at footage of George Wallace standing in a schoolhouse door to keep Black students out and decided that was a model worth reviving—this time against Muslims,” Saylor said. “His rhetoric belongs to the same shameful chapter of American history, and it will be taught that way.”
Tuberville was also condemned by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who hammered the Republican senator for using an attack on Jews in Australia to justify prejudice against Muslims in the US.
"An outrageous, disgusting display of islamophobia from Sen. Tuberville," wrote Schumer. "The answer to despicable antisemitism is not despicable islamophobia. This type of rhetoric is beneath a United States senator—or any good citizen for that matter."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), meanwhile, described Tuberville's rant as "vile and un-American," and said that his "bigoted zealotry" against Muslims would have made America's founders "cringe."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said Tuberville's rhetoric was completely at odds with the US Constitution.
"This is a senator calling for religious purges in the United States," he wrote. "A country whose earliest colonists came fleeing religious persecution and whose Founders thought that protecting against state interference with religion was so important it was put into the First Amendment."
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, noted that Tuberville was far from alone in expressing open bigotry toward Muslims, as US Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) and New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino had also made vicious anti-Muslim statements in recent days.
"A congressman says mainstream Muslims should be 'destroyed,'" he wrote. "A senator says Islam is not a religion and Muslims should be sent 'home.' A NYC councilwoman calls for the 'expulsion' and 'denaturalization' of Muslims. Fascist anti-Muslim bigotry is now explicit Republican policy."
Williams also said Tuberville was "unfit for public office and should face censure and removal."
Fred Wellman, a Democratic candidate for US congress in Missouri, countered Tuberville with just two sentences: "Islam is a religion. Tommy Tuberville is an unrepentant racist."
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