People gather as rescuers sift through the rubble of a levelled building, following an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood. AFP
On Saturday morning, AFP footage showed an excavator removing the rubble of the eight-storey building hit at around 04:00 AM (0200 GMT), with a fire truck and civil defence rescuers nearby while people gathered around the site.
Lebanon's health ministry initially said four were killed, giving a preliminary toll, while media reports warned more bodies may be trapped under the rubble.
There was no evacuation warning from the Israeli army for the Basta area.
Rescuers were "removing rubble in Al-Mamoun Street in the Basta (neighbourhood), where Israeli enemy aircraft targeted an eight-story building at dawn, completely destroying it, and leaving a large number of people dead and wounded," the official National News Agency said.
Rescuers use an excavator to clear the rubble in front of a levelled building, following an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood. AFP
The NNA also reported that Israeli jets launched six missiles at the building in the working-class Basta neighbourhood causing "widespread destruction in buildings" nearby.
AFP journalists heard at least three large explosions in the capital at dawn.
Saturday's strikes were the second time the Basta district had been targeted since war broke out, with deadly twin strikes early in October targeting the area and the Nweiri neighbourhood.
Hours later the NNA reported another Israeli strike, this time on the Hadath area of Beirut's southern suburbs.
In southern Lebanon, an Israeli drone attacked fishermen off the southern shore of Tyre, Lebanon, killing at least two.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad, showed a mourner over a body and an injured person who later died from the attack near the beach.
This attack is part of a broader pattern of Israeli strikes in Tyre, extending towards Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported.
Rescuers evacuate bodies of victims from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a house in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek. AFP
An Israeli strike on the town of Al-Majadil, also in the south, trapped two people under rubble.
In eastern Lebanon, the Baalbek-Hermel also saw casualties, with five bodies recovered from under rubble in Doris, following another Israeli airstrike.
The strikes came after a day of bombardment in the capital's southern suburbs, including air strikes that demolished an 11-storey building.
On Thursday, Israeli strikes killed at least 51 people in towns and villages across Lebanon, the country's Health Ministry reported. In its latest toll, Lebanon's health ministry said at least 3,645 people had been killed in Israeli strikes since October 2023.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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