22 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut

Beirut: At least 22 civilians were killed in Israeli strikes on a densely populated area of central Beirut on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Israel has repeatedly pounded Beirut's southern suburbs over the last two weeks but Thursday's raid was only the third time the city center has been targeted.

"The Israeli enemy's attacks on the capital Beirut this evening resulted in a new toll of 22 people killed and 117 injured," the ministry said in a statement.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said the strikes hit the neighborhoods of Nweiri and Basta.

"The first strike in Beirut targeted the third floor of an eight-story building" in the Nweiri area, and a second strike hit "a four-story building... in Al-Basta Al-Fouqa," NNA reported.

Eyewitnesses in the Basta area said two old buildings had collapsed, while the windows of surrounding homes had been blown out with the force of the explosion.

Rescue services and local residents were attempting to pull survivors out of the mountain of rubble, with some of them carried away on stretchers.

Firefighters worked to put out a blaze in a residential building hit in the Nweiri area, with residents being evacuated from the upper floors using a ladder, NNA reported.

Immediately after the raids footage showed two plumes of smoke billowing in between densely-packed buildings.

Earlier this month, Israel carried out a deadly air raid in Beirut, hitting an emergency services rescue facility killing seven workers, the service said.

Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and its foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire for nearly a year in fallout from the Gaza war.

But since September 23, Israel has escalated its air strikes on targets in Lebanon, killing more than 1,200 people and forcing more than one million to flee their homes, according to official figures.