Sara Saleh and her family fled wearing their pyjamas on Wednesday when Israel’s military said it would strike a central Beirut building near the school-turned-shelter where they had been staying.
Several other strikes, however, came without warning, jolting terrified residents in the middle of the night and early morning and killing at least 12 people.
They were just the latest Israeli attacks on the Lebanese capital since war again erupted between Israel and Hezbollah this month.
“It was at 4:00 am (0200 GMT), we were asleep” when the Israeli evacuation warning came, said Saleh, 29, adding that she also heard gunfire alerting people to the danger.
Along with her parents, brother, sisters and sisters’ children, “we fled in our pyjamas” down the road to central Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, she said.
The sound of the strike “was terrifying... all of Beirut shook,” said Saleh, who was displaced from the southern suburbs. She had stayed in the same school during the 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The children “started crying and panicking, it was heartbreaking”, she said, wearing a facemask to protect herself from the dust thrown up by the destruction of the building in the Bashoura neighbourhood, which faced one of the city’s main roads.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in response to US-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel has responded with strikes on Lebanon including Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold, and ground operations in the south.
Its military has also hit the capital’s central districts several times, only sometimes issuing evacuation orders.
“What’s scary is that they are striking without warning,” Saleh said.
“It’s good they gave a warning here because with us in the school hosting displaced people there are children, babies” and elderly people, she said.
Not far away in Zuqaq al-Blat, a densely populated district close to the government’s headquarters and several embassies, people were clearing dust and glass from cars and the streets after the latest strike.
People watched as compact earthmovers cleared the road and transported rubble, while shopkeepers milled near shattered shopfronts and an Israeli surveillance drone buzzed overhead.
Chunks of ash floated in the air and people shouted to warn those below of glass about to fall from a blown-out window, as a mangled scooter sat near the curb.
“My family and I were terrified,” said Haidar, 68, a shopkeeper who lives nearby.
“When there’s no warning, it’s very tough,” he said.
He said his distressed wife wanted to try to find another place to stay after several strikes on the district since the war erupted.
In the street, a woman cried and a family with children carrying bags and a pink child’s doll were seen leaving the area.
The health ministry said the strikes in Zuqaq al-Blat as well as the nearby Basta district also wounded 41 people.
Hezbollah’s Al Manar television said the director of its political programmes and his wife were among the dead.
“We can barely speak... We’re exhausted,” said Zainab, 65, who lived nearby and was at home with family when the most recent strike hit.
The bombing “was very strong... we felt as if it was over our heads”, she said.
“We’re afraid... every hour or two, they bomb somewhere,” she said.
“Where are we supposed to go?”
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