Rescuers pulled 30 bodies from a building in central Lebanon damaged by an Israeli strike

BARJAH, Lebanon — Lebanese rescuers pulled 30 bodies from the rubble after an overnight Israeli strike on a residential building in the town of Barjah, Lebanon’s Civil Defense said Wednesday, as wars in the Middle East continue with no signs of abating.

It remained unclear whether there were survivors or bodies in the rubble from Tuesday night’s airstrike, which came without warning. There were no statements from the Israeli military, and the intended target of the strike was also unknown.

Barkha, a town north of the port city of Sidon in central Lebanon, has not been regularly attacked in the conflict so far.

“Something hit me hard and then there was an explosion,” said Moussa Zahran, who was at home with his wife and son when the building collapsed. He said he couldn’t see anything, but began digging through the rubble until he found his wife and son – alive but wounded – and pulled them out. Both are still in the hospital, he said.

Another resident of the house, Muhyiddin Al-Qalaaji, said he was at work when the strike happened and heard the news from his wife, who called him in despair.

“Many are killed and injured,” he said as he carried out what he could salvage from the family’s belongings Wednesday morning.

Civil defense spokesman Mostafa Danai said some neighbors reported people were still missing.

Clashes between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group have been ongoing for more than a year, as Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border shortly after an Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel sparked the ongoing war there.

The war on the Lebanese front has escalated significantly since mid-September, when Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment and ground invasion.

Several large airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early Thursday, including one near Lebanon’s only international airport. The Israeli military had previously issued an evacuation notice for the site, saying it contained “Hezbollah installations” but without going into detail. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

A rocket attack killed a foreign worker near the northern Israeli city of Acre on Wednesday, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service. The worker’s nationality was not immediately known.

Earlier in the day, sirens sounded across northern and central Israel, including in the densely populated metropolis of Tel Aviv, as Hezbollah fired 10 rockets. Most of the rocket crashed into a parked car in the central Israeli city of Ra’anana. Rockets also struck an open area near Israel’s main airport, Israeli media reported, although the airport said flights were operating as normal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday in a surprise announcement that sparked protests across the country. Gallant will be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a longtime Netanyahu supporter and veteran cabinet minister.

Israeli police said they arrested 40 people during protests on Tuesday evening when demonstrators blocked Israel’s main highway in Tel Aviv. Thousands of people gathered outside Israel’s parliament on Wednesday evening to protest Gallant’s sacking.

Netanyahu has repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza, but the prime minister avoided letting his rival go ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election, which former President Donald Trump won.

Gallant rejected some of Netanyahu’s demands during indirect talks with Hamas over a ceasefire and the release of hostages and was seen as more open to reaching at least a temporary truce.

The Hamas attack that sparked the war killed about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and Palestinian militants kidnapped another 250 that day. There are still about 100 hostages in the Gaza Strip, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials said. They do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began in Lebanon in 2023, at least 3,000 people have been killed and about 13,500 injured, about a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.

According to local authorities, Hezbollah’s air attacks have so far killed 73 people in Israel, including 30 soldiers.

Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Melanie Liedman in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.