Israeli airstrikes on Saturday killed over 55 people in Lebanon, including many in central Beirut, as Israel's defense minister vowed decisive action against Hezbollah during a call with his U.S. counterpart.
On Israel's second front, the more than 13-month war on Gaza, rescuers said pre-dawn Israeli airstrikes and tank fire killed 19 people and wounded more than 40.
One strike on Saturday in the heart of Beirut brought down a residential building and jolted residents across the city.
The strike on the working-class Basta neighborhood killed at least 20 people and wounded 66, Lebanon's Health Ministry said in a revised toll.
"We saw two dead people on the ground ... The children started crying and their mother cried even more," said Samir, 60, who lives in a building facing the one destroyed.
The attack in the capital was followed by others in the city's southern suburbs after demands by the Israeli military to evacuate.
Israel has not commented on the strike in central Beirut but said it had again hit Hezbollah targets in the city's southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iran-backed group.
A military statement claimed that over the past week, the air force "struck dozens of Hezbollah command centers, weapons storage facilities, and ... infrastructure in the Dahieh area."
A Lebanese security source said the central Beirut strike had "targeted a leading Hezbollah figure," but a Hezbollah lawmaker, Amin Sherri, denied to Lebanese media that any official was present at the time of the attack.
Similar strikes carried out without warning outside of Hezbollah's traditional bastions – which include southern Beirut but not the center – have tended to target senior figures.
The Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes also hit eastern Lebanon, killing 24 people including 13 in the town of Shmostar overlooking the Bekaa Valley, another Hezbollah stronghold.
In Lebanon's south, at least 14 were killed including five in the coastal city of Tyre, the ministry said.
In a telephone call with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Saturday, Washington's Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin "reiterated U.S. commitment to a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon that allows Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides of the border," a Pentagon spokesperson said.
A spokesman for Katz said he commended the U.S. efforts towards "de-escalation in Lebanon" and underscored that Israel would "continue to act decisively in response to Hezbollah's attacks on civilian populations in Israel."
United States envoy Amos Hochstein was in Lebanon and Israel this week, meeting with both countries' senior officials, to try to negotiate an end to the war.
After talks in Beirut, he said a deal was "within our grasp" but as he headed to Israel both sides put out statements that dented hopes of rapid progress.
Lebanon says more than 3,670 people have been killed in the country since October 2023. Most of the deaths have been since September this year.
