At least 11 killed after Israeli strike flattens building in central Beirut, Civil Defense says

At least 11 people have been killed and several others injured after an Israeli strike flattened a multi-story residential building in central Beirut overnight, Lebanese officials said.

Rescue workers in Lebanon were on Saturday morning searching for survivors under the rubble in the densely populated Basta area of the Lebanese capital, authorities said.

The attack left a “deep crater” in the area that it hit, the country’s state National News Agency (NNA) reported, blaming powerful “bunker busting” bombs.

At least 23 other people were injured in the strike, according to a toll provided by Lebanon’s Civil Defense.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not issue an evacuation order for the area ahead of the strikes, and has not yet commented on the attack.

Saturday’s attack marks the latest in a string of Israeli strikes on central Beirut in recent weeks, following the killing of a Hezbollah spokesperson in an airstrike last Sunday.

Most Israeli airstrikes have targeted the Lebanese militant group’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs since hostilities ramped up early last month.

On Friday, the director general of Dar Al Amal University Hospital near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon was killed along with six of his colleagues in an alleged Israeli strike, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The IDF said it was looking into reports of the strike on the hospital.