Israeli airstrike destroys residential building in Beirut, killing at least 20

The strikes were the fourth on the Lebanese capital in less than a week, as Caroline Lewis reports

An eight-storey building in central Beirut has been destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, killing at least 20 people and injuring dozens more.

Officials in Lebanon fear the death toll could rise as emergency workers are still digging through the rubble looking for survivors.

Lebanon's Health Ministry said 66 people were wounded in the strikes, which were the fourth in central Beirut in less than a week.

The escalation comes after US envoy Amos Hochstein traveled to the region this week in an attempt to broker a cease-fire deal to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

The strikes early on Saturday morning destroyed a residential building, leaving a crater in the ground.

Also on Saturday a drone strike killed one person and injured another in the southern port city of Tyre, according to the state-run National News Agency.

The Israeli army said in a statement on Saturday, that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The army said prior to the strikes it issued advance warnings to civilians in the area.

The strikes came a day after heavy bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and as heavy ground fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants continues in southern Lebanon.

Israeli bombardment has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

It has displaced about 1.2 million, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by rockets, drones and missiles in northern Israel and in fighting in Lebanon.

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