First responders have recovered the bodies of 30 people killed in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment block south of Beirut, Lebanon’s Civil Defense agency said.

The attack on Tuesday evening destroyed one side of the four-storey building that was believed to be housing displaced people in the predominantly Sunni Muslim coastal city of Barja and started a fire.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health gave a preliminary death toll of 20 on Tuesday evening, but warned that the figure could rise.

The Israeli military said it struck “terror infrastructure” belonging to the Shiite armed group Hezbollah.

Moussa Zahran, who lived on one of the upper floors of the block, said his son and wife were injured by the falling masonry.

“These stones you see here weigh 100 kg, they fell on a 13 kg child,” he told the Reuters news agency as he surveyed the damage.

“I removed (the pieces) and … handed my son to civil defense through the window. I carried my wife and went down and out the back of the building… I thank God, glory be to Him, for this miracle.”

An Irish Times correspondent quoted a member of the civil defense at the scene as saying those killed whose bodies were found complete included seven women and three children – a seven-month-old baby and two girls aged seven and 12.

Neighbors also said the building housed displaced people who fled from other areas, she added.

There was no evacuation warning before the strike, according to Reuters.

On Wednesday afternoon, Lebanese media reported new airstrikes in the southern city of Nabatieh and the southern suburbs of Beirut. They came hours after the Israeli army ordered residents to evacuate the areas around several buildings, warning them that it was about to act against “facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah”.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) announced that seven people were killed in a strike on al-Ain village in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The Israeli military also said it killed the commander of Hezbollah forces in the southern border region of Khiam and that a number of other Hezbollah fighters were killed by airstrikes and troops operating in southern Lebanon in the past day.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s new secretary-general, Naim Qassem, said in a speech that the group has “tens of thousands of trained resistance fighters” ready to fight and that nowhere in Israel is “beyond the range of drones and our rockets”.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired about 120 rockets into northern and central Israel on Wednesday. No injuries were reported.

Local media said a missile hit a parking lot near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, but the Israel Airports Authority said its operations were not affected. Hezbollah said it targeted the Tzrifin military base near the airport.

A large section of a rocket also hit a parked car in the city of Raanana, just north of Tel Aviv.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated six weeks ago, at least 2,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million displaced in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israeli air strikes removed most of the group’s leadership, including Qassem’s predecessor Hassan Nasrallah, and caused widespread destruction in parts of southern and eastern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut – areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the Gaza war.

It says it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of northern Israel’s border areas displaced by rocket attacks Hezbollah launched in support of the Palestinians a day after its ally Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel from October 7, 2023.

Israeli authorities say more than 70 people have been killed in Hezbollah attacks in Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the past year.