Beirut

Founded by Phoenicians and shaped by Ottoman rule, the French mandate, and a 15-year civil war, Beirut has 2.4 million people in its metropolitan area. The 2020 port explosion killed over 200 people and destroyed much of the commercial waterfront; the World Bank estimated damage at $3.8-4.6 billion. Lebanon's financial collapse, which began in 2019, wiped out middle-class savings and drove emigration at a scale not seen since the civil war era. The rest of the city functioned on an informal understanding that conflict was contained to Dahiyeh, Hezbollah's southern suburb. That understanding has now ended.

Lebanon's capital sat at the centre of a war it did not start and could not stop. From 2 March 2026, Israel struck not only Dahiyeh but central Beirut itself: the Ramada hotel, the Aisha Bakkar neighbourhood, and the Ramlet al-Baida seafront. On 28 March an IDF strike on southern Beirut killed two senior Hezbollah commanders as part of a response to a record 600-projectile barrage. Over 850 people were killed and 831,000 displaced from the greater city before a Ceasefire took effect on 16 April 2026 — fraying from day one as IDF troops held their 10-kilometre buffer zone and strikes continued in the south.

PM Nawaf Salam's government expelled Iran's Ambassador-Designate Sheibani — the sharpest assertion of Lebanese sovereignty in 36 years — and backed the Ceasefire framework. Trump extended the Lebanon truce to approximately 15-16 May on 23 April, buying diplomatic time while Israeli operations in the south continued to expand beyond the buffer zone. On 7 May 2026, IDF struck Dahiyeh and killed Ahmed Ali Balout, commander of Hezbollah's Radwan Force — the first airstrike on the Lebanese capital since the Ceasefire took effect. Iran's Foreign Ministry warned the strike risked collapsing Iran's own ceasefire with Israel. Beirut is caught between a Ceasefire that Israel applies selectively and a government asserting sovereignty it cannot yet enforce.