BEIRUT, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Stepping through the charred ruins of her neighbourhood in central Beirut, Lebanese seamstress Laila Amayrad watched bulldozers pick through a building flattened by an Israeli strike days ago, hoping her friends' bodies would be found.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701 in August 2006 as part of a cease-fire that ended Israel’s last war with Lebanon. The resolution sought to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to prevent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, but has failed to keep the peace.

At least 11 people have been killed and several others injured after an Israeli strike flattened a multi-story residential building in central Beirut overnight, Lebanese officials said.

Israel began a series of strikes on central Beirut on Tuesday evening, security sources told Reuters, after issuing its first-ever evacuation orders for four areas inside the city itself, hours before a ceasefire was expected to be announced.

The death toll from an Israeli strike on a densely populated area in central Beirut on Saturday has reached 29, Lebanon's Health Ministry said on Sunday. Another 67 people were injured, the ministry said,

At least 20 people were killed in a powerful Israeli strike that flattened a multi-storey building in densely populated central Beirut, Lebanese officials said on Saturday, as more deaths were reported from Israeli attacks in eastern Lebanon.

Israel launched a new wave of extensive airstrikes that hit the area of Tayouneh on the outskirts of Beirut's southern suburbs, on Tuesday. The airstrikes come ahead of an expected cease-fire to end the 13-month war between Israel and Hezbollah.

With expectations growing of an imminent ceasefire to stop the fighting in Lebanon, Israel has struck multiple targets in the Lebanese capital Beirut from the air, in particular targeting the city's southern suburbs.