By Riham Alkousaa and Ari Rabinovitch
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -An Israeli airstrike killed four people in a central Beirut neighbourhood on Monday, Lebanon’s health ministry said, the second day in a row Israel has hit a target within the capital as it presses it campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Smoke was seen rising from the location of the strike in the Zuqaq al-Blat area, a short distance from the central Beirut district where the Lebanese government is headquartered. Another 18 people were wounded in the attack, the ministry said.
Israel has intensified its bombardment of targets in and around the Lebanese capital over the last week, an escalation that coincided with signs of movement in U.S.-led diplomacy aimed at reaching a ceasefire.
Israel has dealt big blows to Hezbollah since late September, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes, and sending troops into southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has kept up rocket fire into northern Israel, where sirens sounded again on Monday.
In Israel, a woman was killed when a rocket struck a building in a town in the north, Israel’s Army Radio reported. The Israeli military said about five projectiles had been fired from Lebanon.
Since Israel launched its major offensive against Hezbollah, the bulk of its airstrikes in the Beirut area have targeted the group’s strongholds in the southern suburbs.
But on Sunday, Israel hit targets in the Beirut city limits for the first time in more than five weeks, killing 10 people in two separate strikes, including Hezbollah’s top media official.
