BEIRUT
\nA powerful airstrike killed 11 people in central Beirut on Saturday, the health ministry said, shaking the capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
\nAn eight-storey building was struck with four missiles, including bunker-penetrating types designed to hit underground targets, said a Lebanese security source.
\nIsrael has used bunker-busting weapons to kill senior Hezbollah figures, including its veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on southern Beirut in September.
\nAt the site of the Israeli strike in central Beirut, Amin Chirri, a member of parliament representing Hezbollah, said there had been no Hezbollah leader in the building that was struck.
\nThe Israeli military made no comment.
\nSaturday\u2019s blasts shook the capital at around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT) and left a deep crater. Beirut smelled strongly of explosives for hours afterwards.
\nRescuers searched through rubble, in an area of the city known for its antique shops.
\nIt was the fourth Israeli airstrike this week targeting a central area of Beirut, in contrast to the bulk of Israel\u2019s attacks on the capital region, which have hit the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs. On Sunday an Israeli airstrike killed a Hezbollah media official in the Ras al-Nabaa district of central Beirut.
\nThe Israeli air force also struck Hezbollah targets in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the group\u2019s stronghold, the Israeli military said. In a statement on actions on Saturday, it did not mention the strike on central Beirut.
\nIt accused Hezbollah of embedding its infrastructure in civilian areas and using the population as human shields, allegations the group denies.
\nA man whose family was hurt in the strike in central Beirut tried to comfort a traumatized woman outside a hospital. Car windows were shattered.
\n\u201cThere was dust and wrecked houses, people running and screaming, they were running, my wife is in hospital, my daughter is in hospital, my aunt is in the hospital,\u201d said the man, Nemir Zakariya, who held up a picture of his daughter.
\n\u201cThis is the little one, and my son also got hurt – this is my daughter, she is in the American University (of Beirut Medical Centre), this is what happened.\u201d
\nSeparately, at least five people were killed and two wounded in an Israeli strike on Roum village in southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to the Lebanese state news agency.
\nIsrael launched a major offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, following nearly a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.
\nIsraeli strikes killed at least 62 people and injured 111 in Lebanon on Thursday, bringing the toll since October 2023 to 3,645 dead and 15,355 injured, Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said. The figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
\nHezbollah and the Lebanese government accuse Israel of indiscriminate bombing that kills civilians. Israel denies the allegation and says it takes numerous steps to avoid the deaths of civilians and it accuses Hezbollah of using human shields.
\nHezbollah denies the accusation.
\nHezbollah strikes in the same period have killed more than 100 people in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. They include more than 70 soldiers killed in strikes in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israel.
\nThe conflict began when Hezbollah, Tehran\u2019s most important ally in the region, opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas after it launched the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
\nA U.S. mediator travelled to Lebanon and Israel this week in an effort to secure a ceasefire. The envoy, Amos Hochstein, indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz.
\nReporting by Laila Bassam, Riham Alkousaa, Tom Perry, Enas Alashray, Adam Makary, Ayman Sahely, Ahmed Fahmy and Menna Alaa El Din; Writing by Tom Perry and Michael Georgy; Editing by Christopher Cushing, William Mallard, Sam Holmes, Frances Kerry and Timothy Heritage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIRUT A powerful airstrike killed 11 people in central Beirut on Saturday, the health ministry said, shaking the capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. An eight-storey building was struck with four missiles, including bunker-penetrating types designed to hit underground targets, said a Lebanese security source. Israel has used bunker-busting weapons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-445393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n