11 dead after powerful Israeli strike shakes central Beirut

BEIRUT: A powerful air strike killed 11 people in central Beirut today, the Lebanese civil defence said, shaking the capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

The attack destroyed an eight-storey building and caused a large number of fatalities and injuries, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

Israel used bunker buster bombs in the strike, leaving a deep crater, the agency said.

Beirut smelled strongly of explosives hours after the attack.

The blasts shook the capital at around 4am.

Security sources said at least four bombs were dropped in the attack.

It marked the fourth Israeli air strike this week targeting a central area of Beirut, in contrast to the bulk of Israel’s attacks on the capital region, which have hit the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs.

On Sunday an Israeli air strike killed a Hezbollah media official in the Ras al-Nabaa district of central Beirut.

Rescuers searched through rubble, in an area of the city known for its antique shops.

Hospitalised daughter

A man whose family was hurt tried to comfort a traumatised woman outside a hospital.

Car windows were shattered.

“There 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,” said the man, Nemir Zakariya, who held up a picture of his daughter.

“This 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.”