Death toll from Israeli strike on Beirut nears 40 including 3 children

The death toll from an Israeli strike on a Beirut suburb has risen to 37, including seven women and three children, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, as Israel and Hezbollah traded fire.

Earlier, Lebanon's Public Health Minister Firas Abiad told reporters on Saturday that 68 people were also wounded, of whom 15 remained in hospital.

Abiad said that search and rescue operations were still ongoing, with the number of casualties likely to rise.

The rare strike hit an apartment block in a densely populated southern Beirut neighbourhood on Friday afternoon during rush hour as people returned home.

It was the deadliest strike targeting the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel war in Lebanon.

On Saturday, the Israeli military announced that it was carrying out new strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, without offering details.

"The IDF (military) is currently striking targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in Lebanon," the military said, adding that at least 16 Hezbollah militants had been killed in Friday's strike in Beirut.

In response to the Israeli attacks, Lebanon's Hezbollah said it fired rockets at two military positions in northern Israel on Saturday.

According to Israeli media, 45 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward several settlements in northern Israel in less than an hour.

At least 15 Hezbollah militants killed

Among those killed in Friday's strike were Ibrahim Aqil who was in charge of Hezbollah's Radwan Force, and other seniors in the group's military wing.

Hezbollah announced overnight Friday that 15 of its operatives were killed by Israeli forces, but did not elaborate on the location of these deaths.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, said on Saturday a total of 16 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the strike.

Israel earlier said Aqil had been meeting with other militants in the basement of the apartment block.

23 people still missing

Lebanese troops cordoned off the area preventing people from reaching the building that was knocked down as members of the Lebanese Red Cross stood nearby to take any recovered body from under the rubble.

On Saturday morning, Hezbollah’s media office took journalists on a tour of the scene of the strike where workers were still digging through the rubble.

The Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamie told reporters at the scene that 23 people are still missing.

The airstrike on the crowded street knocked out an eight-storey building that had 16 apartments and damaged another one adjacent to it.

The missiles destroyed the building and cut through the basement where the meeting of Hezbollah officials was being held, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.