Deadly Israeli strike hits central Beirut

BEIRUT, Lebanon — An Israeli air strike in central Beirut killed at least four people early Saturday, bringing down a residential building and jolting residents across the city out of bed as Israel kept up its air campaign against Hizbollah.

The attack was followed by others in the city's southern suburbs after calls by Israel's military to evacuate the area.

Rescue operations were underway at the site of the first strike on Saturday morning, with an excavator removing the rubble of the eight-storey building, and a fire truck and civil defence rescuers stationed nearby as people gathered around the site.

"The strike was so strong it felt like the building was about to fall on our heads," said Samir, 60, who lives in a building facing the one that was destroyed.

He said he fled his home in the middle of the night with his wife and children.

"We saw two dead people on the ground... The children started crying and their mother cried even more," he told AFP.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported that Beirut "woke up to a horrific massacre", after Israeli jets hit the building in the working-class Basta neighbourhood.

The NNA said Israeli jets had launched six missiles at the structure, causing "widespread destruction in buildings" nearby.

The strike "killed four people and injured 23 others", Lebanon's health ministry said in a statement, giving a preliminary toll. 

The predawn attack in Basta was not preceded by an evacuation warning from Israel's military. Similar strikes carried out without warning outside of Hizbollah's traditional bastions have tended to target high-level members.

Israel declined to comment on the strike, while Hizbollah had yet to mention it.

The second strike hit the neighbourhood of Hadath in Beirut's southern suburbs, which are a stronghold of Hizbollah. 

Israel stepped up its campaign against the Iran-backed group in late September, targeting areas where it holds sway in the country's east, south and south Beirut, and later sending in ground troops after nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire.

Lebanon's health ministry says at least 3,645 people have been killed since October 2023, when Hizbollah initiated cross-border clashes with Israel in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas over the Gaza war. Most of the deaths have been since September this year.