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.

An Israeli strike smashed into a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut causing a huge explosion after a warning was issued by the Israeli military on X. The strike comes as cease-fire negotiations continue between Israel and Lebanon.

BEIRUT - A massive Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in a central district of Beirut early Saturday killed at least 20 people, thundered across the city and underlined fears in Lebanon that the war is escalating, days after diplomatic talks aimed at a cease-fire stirred hope of the conflict’s end.