Powerful Israeli Airstrike Hits Central Beirut

A powerful Israeli airstrike on central Beirut killed at least four people and injured 23 early on Saturday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, another in a series of once-rare attacks in the Lebanese capital as cease-fire negotiations mediated by the United States appeared to be inching forward.

The strike came just after 4 a.m., when it jolted Beirut awake with thundering explosions that left much of the city enveloped in acrid smoke. It was the third strike in the city this week, and part of a wave of amped-up Israeli military activity across the country in recent days.

The Lebanese state-run news agency reported that the strike had targeted a multistory building in the Basta neighborhood of Beirut, an area that is home to both Sunni and Shiite Muslims and close to several Western embassies. Hezbollah is a Shiite militant group and Shiite communities in southern and eastern Lebanon have borne the brunt of Israeli attacks over the past few months.

“There was no prior warning,” Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said of the Basta strike in a phone interview, adding that he expected the death toll to rise. “It appears there are still bodies under the rubble.”

Later on Saturday morning, Israel issued new evacuation warnings for the Dahiya, a densely populated area just south of Beirut that is effectively controlled by Hezbollah. Israel has frequently bombed the Dahiya, but strikes in Beirut have been more rare and have tended to target members of Hezbollah’s leadership.

It was not immediately clear who was the target of Saturday’s strike, and the Israeli military declined to comment.