A massive Israeli strike has flattened a residential building in centre of the Lebanese capital Beirut. At least 11 people have been killed and more than 60 injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The eight-storey building was completely destroyed without warning by five missiles in the capital’s densely-populated Basta district, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
Explosions shook the city following the Israeli attack, which happened at about 04:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Saturday.
The Israeli military made no immediate comment about the Basta strike.
The scale of Saturday’s air strike and the fact it happened without warning indicate that a senior Hezbollah figure could have been the target, although there has been no confirmation from either the armed group or the Israeli military.
Emergency teams searched the site in Basta, where plumes of smoke rose from a huge crater.
The death toll is likely to rise as work to remove rubble at the site continues. The health ministry said DNA tests will be used to identify victims.
Local resident Nemir Zarariya said he and his family were asleep when the pre-dawn attack began.
“We were deep asleep and then the strike happened and then a second strike. We didn’t understand what happened,” he said.
“There was dust and wrecked houses, people running and screaming. My wife is in hospital, my daughter is in hospital, my aunt is in the hospital.”
The strike is Israel’s fourth attack this week on central Beirut. On Monday, Iran-backed Hezbollah said its spokesman Mohammed Afif had been killed in an air strike.
The attack in the early hours of Saturday was followed by others in the city. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued an evacuation order to residents in southern Beirut who, it claimed, were located “near Hezbollah facilities and interests”.
An hour later, fighter jets targeted a number of sites which included several Hezbollah command centres, weapons storage facilities, and “additional terrorist infrastructure”, the IDF said in a statement.
In recent months, Israeli strikes have killed several top Hezbollah members in Beirut, including the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The IDF began a major offensive against Hezbollah in September, carrying out air strikes and also sending troops into southern Lebanon.
The hostilities escalated after the Iran-backed Hezbollah fired repeated salvoes of rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas, the Palestinian group that carried out the deadly 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Israel’s stated goal in its war against Hezbollah is to allow the return of about 60,000 residents who have been displaced from communities in northern Israel because of the group’s attacks.
In Lebanon, the conflict has killed more than 3,500 people and forced more than one million from their homes, Lebanese authorities say.
Earlier this week, a US mediator visited both Israel and Lebanon in an attempt to secure a ceasefire.
Amos Hochstein indicated some progress had been made – but has not publicly commented on any details.
This article was originally published at www.bbc.com
