BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israel kept up its bombing of Lebanon Tuesday after a late night strike that killed 18 people near a Beirut hospital, state media reported, as its war on Hezbollah approached the one-month mark.
The latest deaths brought the overall toll in Lebanon since Sept 23 to at least 1,552, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, although the real number is likely to be higher due to data gaps.
The official National News Agency said four strikes hit Beirut's embattled southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, with AFP footage showing plumes of smoke rising over the area.
The strikes forced Hezbollah to cut short a press conference after the Israeli army issued an evacuation order for the area.
An Israeli strike hit a target several hundred metres (yards) away from the venue just minutes after reporters left, an AFP video journalist said.
One raid in the Ghobeiri area levelled an 11-storey apartment complex, AFP images showed.
In the country's south, the Lebanese Red Cross said three paramedics were wounded in a strike on Nabatiyeh as they carried out a rescue mission in coordination with UN peacekeepers.
The strikes on Nabatiyeh created a "belt of fire," with scores of residential buildings, shops and cafes wiped out in "less than 30 seconds", NNA said, calling it the heaviest Israeli bombardment of the city since the start of the war.
"One street looked like a terrifying battlefield," NNA said.
The Israeli army also bombed Al-Hawsh, just south of the southern city of Tyre, NNA said, with AFPTV footage showing smoke billowing over the area.
- 'Children ripped apart' -
Tuesday's bombardment followed heavy shelling the previous day that killed a total of 63 people and wounded 234, according to health ministry figures.
Monday's toll includes 18 killed, four of them children, in an Israeli strike near a south Beirut hospital, the ministry said.
Another 60 people were wounded in the strike near the Rafic Hariri Hospital, Lebanon's biggest public health facility, located in Jnah a few kilometres (couple of miles) from the city centre, the health ministry said.
There was no evacuation warning for the densely populated neighbourhood that has seen an influx of people displaced from areas further south.
The hospital sustained minor damage in the strike, with windows shattered and solar panels destroyed, its director said.
But the strike flattened four nearby buildings, an AFP correspondent reported.
Rescuers were still combing the rubble for survivors on Tuesday.
Among them was resident Ola Eid who said she had watched from her balcony the previous night as her neighbourhood was bombed.
"The children were playing in the courtyard," Eid told AFP.
"I was tossing them chocolate and candy from my balcony," she added.
"Before they could even catch them, the first strike hit, then a second. I saw the children ripped apart."
- Hezbollah fighters captured -
The strike came after Israel accused Hezbollah on Monday of storing money in a bunker under the nearby Sahel Hospital, an allegation the facility's owner denied.
Journalists were invited to tour the hospital on Tuesday as calls mounted for the protection of Lebanon's medical infrastructure.
The Sahel Hospital is less than two kilometres (barely a mile) away from the Rafic Hariri and both have treated casualties of Israel's strikes.
Last month, Israel expanded the scope of its war from Gaza to Lebanon, vowing to keep fighting Hezbollah until it secures its northern border to allow for the return of people displaced by rocket fire.
Hezbollah confirmed on Tuesday that some of its fighters had been taken prisoner without giving any figures.
Previously, the Israeli army said it has captured a total of four Hezbollah fighters since the start of its ground offensive in Lebanon, and released video footage it said showed one of them answering questions.
The Iran-backed group also claimed responsibility for a drone strike that targeted the residence of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the central town of Caesarea at the weekend. - AFP