Rescue workers searched for anyone trapped in the rubble of two Israeli air strikes which hit central Beirut overnight.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), 22 people were killed and 117 wounded in the central Beirut strikes of the recent escalation.
Youssef al-Mallah, head of the Civil Defence Rescue team, told the BBC five people are still missing at the site of Basta, which is the Shia neighbourhood.
Al-Mallah reported that the Civil Defence has appealed to family members of missing persons to come forward with any information about their whereabouts.
Unconfirmed reports on Friday claimed that Wafiq Saffa, the head Hezbollah liaison and coordination unit’s unit, was the intended target of one of these strikes, but he managed to survive.
Israeli authorities have not made any comments. They did not issue warnings before the strikes as they have done in other instances.
Both strikes on Beirut targeted residential buildings in densely populated neighbourhoods. The missile that struck Basta completely destroyed a four-storey structure and severely damaged or destroyed three adjacent buildings.
The third floor of a eight-storey building in the predominantly Shia neighbourhood of Nweiri was struck, ejecting large chunks of rubble and destroying cars, shopfronts and other structures below.
Many residents were either at home or in the streets when the strikes occurred, which was at around 20:00 local time (18:00 BST).
Hassan Jaafar was a 22-year old security guard who was at home with his friends, just 50m away from the Basta strike. He told the BBC that they heard “a roar that seemed closer with each second”.
He said, “The shockwave knocked off our feet and sent us backwards while dust and debris filled up the air.” “For a brief moment, everything disappeared in a cloud ash.”
Jaafar and his friends were injured by flying glass and debris. “In that instant, it felt as if the war had expanded to our lives,” Jaafar said.
Residents were distraught as they looked at the rubble that was left behind by the strike of Friday morning. They begged members of the Civil Defence team for help in retrieving their possessions.
A group of women were searching for a missing relative, a mother with young children who had been last seen on a sling at the site. The Civil Defence team instructed the group to personally check every hospital.
A rescue worker said, “If she left on a gurney, she would be in a hospital somewhere.”
Ibtisam, 42, was nearby in her building when the strike began. “If they want fight, they should fight at border,” she said angrily. “The civilians of Beirut are not involved in this.”
Musa Araf of the Civil Defence described how he was in his apartment, on the sixth floor, of the target building, when the missile struck.
“I don’t panic about my job. I am used it,” he said. “But my children were screaming at me and clinging to me.” One of my grandchildren got cut by flying glass.”
Israel has launched airstrikes on Beirut three times now, outside the southern suburb of Dahieh where the Iran-backed Hezbollah is a major force.
According to the IDF, the previous strikes in central Beirut were directed at members of Hezbollah as well as the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Nine people were killed in a strike on a clinic that the IDF said was affiliated with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah announced on Friday that it had launched a drone attack on an Israeli military facility in the northern city Haifa, using explosive-laden robots.
The Iran-backed group claimed that the attack was in retaliation to Israeli strikes on Beirut.
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