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The attack was the third strike in the Lebanese capital this week, part of a wave of amped-up Israeli military activity across the country.
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.
A handful of Israeli airstrikes hit central Beirut when the war between Israel and Hezbollah first escalated, including two strikes on the Basta neighborhood and another area nearby that killed at least 22 people in early October.
But the city center had remained largely untouched by Israel’s air campaign since then, until two days of strikes earlier this week killed five people and injuring 24, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Israel and Hezbollah have both said they will keep fighting as cease-fire negotiations continue, and analysts have said that Israel’s stepped up attacks in recent days are a tactic meant to pressure Hezbollah into a deal.
An Israeli official said on Friday that there was “cautious optimism” in Israel about the prospect of reaching a day in the coming days. A Lebanese official briefed on the talks was less sanguine, saying Lebanon believed it was “realistic” that the negotiations could fail. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
Israel began an intensified military campaign against Hezbollah in September in response to almost a year of near-daily rocket attacks on northern Israel. Hezbollah said the attacks were in solidarity with its ally, Hamas, in Gaza. Both armed groups are back by Iran.
Israel said it was going to war in Lebanon to stop the rockets and to allow tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern towns that were evacuated last year. But the rocket attacks have not ceased, and those residents have been unable to return home.
In Lebanon, the war has killed more than 3,500 people and forced almost a quarter of the population to flee their homes. It is now the bloodiest conflict inside Lebanon since the country’s 15-year civil war, which ended in 1990.
Liam Stack is a Times reporter on special assignment in Israel, covering the war in Gaza. More about Liam Stack
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