The first thing Abdelwahab noticed was the silence after the blast.

Then came the smoke, the screams – and the realisation that the bodies he was pulling from the rubble belonged to people he knew.

It was shortly after 2pm on Wednesday when across Lebanon, Israeli warplanes had launched a heavy wave of air strikes on densely populated areas, including in Beirut, its southern suburbs, the eastern Beqaa governorate and southern villages.

The simultaneous strikes killed more than 300 people and wounded over 1,150, according to the Lebanese health ministry.