Rescue workers remove thirty bodies from a building in central Lebanon that was hit by an Israeli attack

“Something pulled me hard, and then the explosion happened,” said Moussa Zahran, who was at home with his wife and son when the building was hit. He said he couldn’t see it, but started digging through the rubble until he found his wife and son – alive but injured – and pulled them out. Both remain in the hospital, he said.

Another resident of the building, Muhyiddin Al-Qalaaji, said he was at work when the strike occurred and heard the news from his wife, who frantically called him.

“There are many dead and injured,” he said Wednesday morning as he worked to rescue the family’s belongings.

Civil defense officer Mostafa Danaj said some neighbors have reported that people are still missing.

Israeli forces and the militant group Hezbollah have been at odds for more than a year, since Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border shortly after the Palestinian Hamas attack from Gaza on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the ongoing war had sparked there.

The war on the Lebanese front has escalated substantially since mid-September, with Israel launching a massive aerial bombardment and a ground invasion.

On Wednesday, sirens sounded in northern and central Israel, including the densely populated Tel Aviv metropolitan area, as Hezbollah launched 10 rockets. There were no reports of injuries.

A large part of a rocket struck a parked car in the central Israeli city of Raanana. Rockets also hit an open area near Israel’s main airport, Israeli media reported, although the airport said flights were operating normally.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a surprise announcement that sparked protests across the country. Gallant’s replacement is Secretary of State Israel Katz, a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.

Israeli police said they arrested 40 people during protests Tuesday evening as demonstrators blocked Israel’s main highway in Tel Aviv. Another evening of protests over the shooting of Gallant was planned across Israel on Wednesday evening.

Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly disagreed over the war in Gaza, but the prime minister had avoided unleashing his rival ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election, in which former President Donald Trump scored a comeback victory.

Gallant had pushed back on some of Netanyahu’s demands during indirect negotiations with Hamas over a ceasefire and the release of hostages, and was seen as more open to reaching at least a temporary ceasefire.

The Hamas attack that sparked the war killed about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and Palestinian militants kidnapped another 250 that day. There are still about a hundred hostages in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They make no distinction between civilians and fighters, but say more than half of the dead were women and children.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah broke out in 2023, at least 3,000 people have been killed and about 13,500 injured in Lebanon, about a quarter of them women and children, the Health Ministry reported.

Hezbollah continues to send dozens of rockets and drones towards Israel. According to Netanyahu’s office, the projectiles have so far killed 72 people in Israel, including 30 soldiers.