Extract from ABC News
Rescue crews and paramedics are still searching for victims of Israel's attack in Beirut. (ABC News: Khalil Ezzeddine)
In short:
The death toll from Israel's 10-minute blitz in Beirut on Wednesday has risen to more than 300, Lebanon's health ministry says, with rescue workers still searching for victims.
At the site of an attack in a residential area, locals told the ABC the victims they knew had no connection to Hezbollah.
One hospital told the ABC at least one in 10 bombing victims being brought in for treatment were children.
More than 24 hours after Israel unleashed a devastating and deadly wave of air strikes across Lebanon, rescue crews were still searching through the rubble for the remains of victims.
Lebanon's health ministry said the death toll had continued to rise on Friday, with at least 303 people reported killed in the attacks — 100 higher than yesterday's count.
Israel insisted it was targeting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, with the country's defence minister saying, without providing evidence, that 200 "terrorists" had been killed on Wednesday.
But a list of the dead, released by the health ministry on Thursday, included 30 children and 71 women.
Warning: This story contains details about the aftermath of attacks some readers may find distressing.
At one site in Corniche al-Mazraa, a densely packed residential area in central Beirut, an entire building had been razed to the ground, killing eight people.
A shop selling roasted nuts, coffee and confectionery had borne the brunt of the attack.
One paramedic, who was working with colleagues in the area on Thursday, said his teams were confronted with a horrific scene when they responded to the aftermath of Wednesday's attacks.
Abu Bakr (left) says the aftermath of the attacks has been horrific. (ABC News: Khalil Ezzeddine)
Paramedic Abu Bakr said some of the injuries involved serious burns.
At least 1,150 people were injured in Wednesday's attacks, Lebanon's health ministry said, noting that workers were still searching the wreckage and finding more victims.
"They didn't attack Hezbollah. There's no Hezbollah here," Abu Bakr told the ABC.
The teams were searching for further remains, including body parts of victims who had been blown apart in the attack.
Another paramedic, Amer Ashkar, said he believed Israel had sent the Lebanese population a warning in the strikes — that "a genocide was coming soon".
Newly engaged nut shop employee among dead
Israel had issued warnings of impending strikes for some parts of southern Beirut ahead of its attacks on Wednesday — areas where locals had been warned to leave weeks ago, around the Hezbollah stronghold suburb of Dahiyeh.
But those warnings did not extend further north, to other areas that were also hit in the strikes. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) justified the attacks there by accusing Hezbollah of embedding itself among the civilian population.
Local resident Bashira Yehyawi, who lives around Corniche al-Mazraa, said she had heard the sound of low-flying fighter jets, the first sign that something was about to happen.
She then heard a loud explosion, and rushed to the scene along with others.
Bashira Yehyawi said she knew many of the people who worked in the nut shop. (ABC News: Khalil Ezzeddine)
One of the victims, who had been working in the nut and confectionery shop, was a man named Nader El Khalil, who the store said had been an employee for 35 years.
"This boy doesn't have a connection with any political party," Ms Yehyawi told the ABC.
"Nader is someone we know — the boy grew up in my house, he comes and goes and is friends with my family.
"What did he do? He was newly engaged, and his parents were happy."
She said many believed Israel was now attacking indiscriminately.
"They're now hitting and harming, but they're not targeting anyone in specific," Ms Yehyawi said.
"They're just throwing poison and leaving."
The IDF has said its strikes are targeting Hezbollah infrastructure or operatives.
'Shell-shocked' children among injured in hospitals
In the hours after the strikes at Corniche al-Mazraa, and elsewhere across the city, Beirut's hospitals came under immense pressure.
Some health facilities could run out of vital supplies in days, the World Health Organization said.
The explosions could be heard from a number of hospitals, preparing staff for the deluge of patients that would soon follow.
Dr Eveline Hitti, the chair of the emergency department at the American University of Beirut Hospital, said it was one of the largest "mass casualty events" the facility had experienced in the last 15 years.
Dr Eveline Hitti said roughly 10 per cent of the bombing victims brought to hospital were children. (ABC News: Khalil Ezzeddine)
Sixty-six people were brought in needing treatment, while five were dead on arrival, she said. Dr Hitti said one victim brought to the hospital had catastrophic injuries.
She added that roughly 10 per cent of those admitted were children, and that many who had been coming through the doors since the war began had been orphaned.
"Not only did we see a seven-year-old coming in shell-shocked from everything that they had experienced and seen, but he came in alone and it turned out that his parents had been martyred," Dr Hitti told the ABC.
"What we're facing with Israeli attacks on Lebanon, similar to the Gaza experience, is that there is a paediatric war injury epidemic."
Dr Mohamad El Zaatari said Wednesday "was a catastrophe". (ABC News: Khalil Ezzeddine)
Across town at Rafik Hariri Hospital, Dr Mohamad El Zaatari said at least 10 children had been brought in with a variety of injuries.
He said people were still coming to the hospital to identify the dead.
Ultimately, the aftermath of the strikes was a "catastrophe", he said.
Israel says it will 'continue to strike Hezbollah with force'
The scale of the bombings, and their timing just hours after the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in the war that had engulfed the Middle East for more than five weeks, has led to scathing condemnation of Israel.
World leaders including the UK's Sir Keir Starmer and France's Emmanuel Macron have criticised Israel for its strikes in Lebanon and the United Nations said it strongly condemned the attacks.
Israel and the United States have both said the ceasefire agreement does not apply to the fighting in Lebanon, but Pakistan — which helped broker the deal — said it did.
Iran has also maintained the ceasefire stretched north of Israel too, and is threatening to hold up further negotiations with the United States in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, over the dispute.
Israel's military operation in Lebanon, and subsequent invasion of the country's south, was prompted by Hezbollah firing upon Israel in solidarity with Tehran in early March. Since then, across Lebanon, 1,739 people have been killed and 5,873 have been wounded, the country's health authorities say.
On Thursday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his government would enter into peace talks with the Lebanese government in a bid to try to disarm Hezbollah.
"There is no ceasefire in Lebanon. We continue to strike Hezbollah with force, and we will not stop until we restore your security," he said in a video message while announcing the decision.
Multiple Israeli and US media outlets reported that was as a result of pressure from the White House for Israel to show some restraint in its attacks on the group.
Israel's Channel 12 reported the Trump administration was angry the bombing had killed such a large number of civilians, while public broadcaster KAN said the talks would begin in Washington next week.
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