At least 13 people, including a child, have been killed in an Israeli air strike near Lebanon’s largest public hospital in southern Beirut, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Another 57 people were injured, seven critically, when at least three buildings about 50m (160ft) from Rafik Hariri University hospital were destroyed in the Jnah neighbourhood on Monday night.
The health ministry said the attack - one of at least 13 reported across the capital - caused “significant damage” to the hospital.
The Israeli military said it hit a Hezbollah target near the hospital, without giving details, and insisted that the facility was not affected, according to the Reuters
news agency.
The military had warned people to move away from several locations in southern Beirut about 15 minutes before the strike, but the area around hospital was not among them.
A BBC producer who was close to the hospital at the time said a loud bang sent people running for cover. Paramedics and firefighters found locals in distress at the scene.
On Tuesday morning, rescuers searched the piles of broken concrete and twisted metal, some carrying shovels, others only with their bare hands, at the site of the strike.
The location hit was an impoverished and densely populated neighbourhood. At least three multi-storey buildings collapsed and several others were heavily damaged.
One of the rescuers said they did not know how many people could be under the rubble.
A BBC team saw one body being recovered, while another had been located as they left.
One resident said the attack happened after a car arrived in the area, but added that they could not say who might have been travelling inside.
from elsewhere in southern Beirut, where the Israeli military warned that it was going to target seven locations in advance, showed locals fleeing in vehicles and on foot as the strikes took place.
One location identified as a target by the Israeli army was about 400m from Beirut airport, Lebanon’s only functioning commercial airport. Local media shared images of windows blown in by the blast.
The Israeli military said aircraft had struck “Hezbollah weapons storage facilities, command centres, and additional terror targets in Beirut”.
“Some of the targets were located underground and included aerial and naval equipment used by Hezbollah to carry out terror attacks,” it added, without identifying the locations.
Separately, the Israeli military said it had identified a Hezbollah bunker concealed under Sahel hospital in Haret Hreik, which was later evacuated.
Military spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said, without providing evidence, that the bunker held hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold that was being used to fund Hezbollah's attacks on Israel. He also said Israel would not strike the hospital itself.
Doctors denied the Israeli allegation and took the BBC through the building on Tuesday, including to the first and second level below ground. They insisted there was nothing underneath.
“We are an institution helping people,” said Dr Walid Alameh, the hospital’s medical director. “[The hospital] is private. It used to be and will remain. Hopefully, [the Israelis] will believe us. What we are doing is helping people.”
