An Israeli air strike in the heart of Beirut that brought down a residential building and jolted residents across the city killed at least 15 people on Saturday.
A Lebanese security source told AFP that the strike had “targeted a leading Hezbollah figure”, but a Hezbollah lawmaker denied any official of the Iran-backed group was present.
The attack in the capital was followed by others in the city’s southern suburbs after calls by the Israeli military to evacuate.
Later on Saturday morning, Israeli strikes also hit southern Beirut’s suburbs, particularly around the Hadath area and the Lebanese University, state media said.
At least 30 people were also killed in eastern and southern Lebanon on Saturday.
At least 16 were killed in the east among them eight in Shmestar, the ministry said. And in the south, at least 14 were killed, including five in the coastal city of Tyre, it added.
Meanwhile in Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least 19 people, some of them children, across the territory on Saturday.
“More than 40 others wounded in three massacres caused by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip between midnight and this morning”, Mahmud Bassal, the civil defence spokesperson told AFP.Â
