Israeli fighter jets launched a series of massive air strikes on a crowded area in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood in the south of Lebanon’s Beirut on Friday.
At least 10 explosions rocked the capital’s southern suburbs, a densely-populated area colloquially known as Dahiyeh.
At least four residential buildings were flattened in the raids with extensive damage reported in nearby structures, according to Al Jazeera.
Lebanon’s civil defence agency says its teams are working on extinguishing multiple fires that erupted in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district, and the bodies of two people were pulled from under the rubble following the series of blasts.
It said its teams are working on evacuating the wounded, without providing more details.
“I’m kind of in shock right now. I was coming back home from work, and suddenly it was like you’re surrounded by thousands of gas bottles, all exploding at once,” Al Jazeera quotes Hiba al-Ashkar, who lives in the Burj el-Barajneh refugee camp, as saying.
“People were screaming, women screaming. It was complete chaos. There was smoke and fire everywhere. My mom broke down, too. At that moment, you don’t know what to do or what you’re supposed to do. Am I going to die now? It was horrible.”
The attacks appeared to be the largest Israeli strikes on Beirut since the 2006 war with Lebanon.
The Israeli military confirmed carrying out the strikes, claiming the target was “Hezbollah’s main command centre”, without providing evidence or further details.
The attack marked a major escalation by Israel, which has been gradually expanding deadly attacks on Lebanon in recent days.
Last Tuesday, thousands of pagers exploded across the country, killing at least 14 people. Then on Monday, Israel began launching hundreds of air strikes that have killed more than 700 people across Lebanon this week, including at least 50 children, with over 550 deaths reported on Monday alone.
Hezbollah has responded with rocket and missile attacks on a number of sites across Israel.
