Beirut, Lebanon  -  An Israeli air strike in central Beirut killed at least four people early Saturday, bringing down a residential building and jolting residents across the city out of bed as Israel kept up its air campaign against Hezbollah. The attack was followed by others in the city’s southern suburbs after calls by Israel’s military to evacuate the area.

Rescue operations were underway at the site of the first strike on Saturday morning, with an excavator removing the rubble of the eight-storey building, and a fire truck and civil defence rescuers stationed nearby as people gathered around the site. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Beirut “woke up to a horrific massacre”, after Israeli jets hit the building in the working-class Basta neighbourhood.

The NNA said Israeli jets had launched six missiles at the structure, causing “widespread destruction in buildings” nearby The strike “killed four people and injured 23 others”, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement, giving a preliminary toll.  The predawn attack in Basta was not preceded by an evacuation warning from Israel’s military. Similar strikes carried out without warning outside of Hezbollah’s traditional bastions have tended to target high-level members.

Neither Israel nor Hezbollah have yet commented on the strike. The second strike hit the neighbourhood of Hadath in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which are a stronghold of Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 3,645 people have been killed since October 2023, when Hezbollah initiated cross-border clashes with Israel in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas over the Gaza war. Most of the deaths have been since September this year.