Israel carried out a strike in the heart of Beirut on Wednesday for a second time since Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war, as the death toll in the country climbed past 630.
Around 30 countries backing the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon voiced concern over the fighting in the country, which became a front in the wider conflict last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel, which had kept up strikes in Lebanon even before the war despite a 2024 ceasefire with Iran-backed Hezbollah, has since launched air raids across the country and sent ground troops into border areas an offensive that has killed 634 people, including 91 children, according to authorities.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said 'the enemy targeted an apartment in the Aisha Bakkar area' in central Beirut, a densely populated neighbourhood close to one of the city's biggest shopping malls.
Senior UN officials and member states called on Wednesday for an end to fighting in Lebanon at a Security Council meeting in New York.
The health ministry announced an initial toll of four people wounded in the apartment strike, the second in central Beirut after Israel a seafront hotel days ago, saying it was targeting Iranian foreign operations officers.
