Smoke and debris flies around at the site of an Israeli strike that targeted a building adjacent to the highway that leads to Beirut's international airport . AFP
The health ministry said an Israeli raid early Wednesday in the Jnah area in the southern suburbs of Beirut, killed at least five people and wounded 21 others.
Four cars parked along a street were directly targeted and destroyed in the strike.
An AFP correspondent at the scene shortly after the attack saw the remains of a car and firefighters battling a blaze in the dark of night.
The sound of several large explosions had been heard across the city, and a column of smoke was seen rising from the Jnah area, which is home to apartment buildings, cafes and shops.
Hassan Jalwan, who lives near Jnah, told AFP he heard several "big explosions" overnight.
"Nobody knows what's happening," he said incredulously, adding that "displaced people have been sleeping in the open" in the area.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the strike originated from a warship.
A separate Israeli strike that hit a vehicle in Khaldeh, just south of the capital, late Tuesday killed two people and wounded three, the health ministry said.
Further strikes continued into early Wednesday, with the NNA reporting attacks on the Hadath district in Beirut's southern suburbs, an area largely emptied of residents after repeatedIsraeli bombardment and evacuation threats
The agency also said Israeli artillery and airstrikes hit Lebanon's south and the adjacent West Bekaa area.
Hezbollah early Wednesday claimed cross-border attacks against Israel and said its fighters were engaged in "fierce clashes" with occupation soldiers in the Lebanese town of Shamaa, around five kilometres (three miles) from the border, and claimed rocket fire targeting a group of Israeli soldiers in another area.
Around midnight, air raid sirens had sounded across northern Israel's region, hours after what Israeli media said was a barrage of more than 40 rockets fired by Hezbollah, which also claimed multiple attacks on northern Israel late Tuesday. The Israeli army has reported several casualties among its ranks in recent days in south Lebanon.
But the toll inside Lebanon has been devastating. Israel has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced over one million.
Israel has said it intends to occupy parts of southern Lebanon to create what officials have called a buffer zone seeking to push Hezbollah away from border areas.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that "all the houses in the villages adjacent to the border in Lebanon will be demolished".
Lebanese Defence Minister Michel Menassa decried plans for "a new occupation", while Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney denounced Israel's deployment as an "illegal invasion".
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