At least 11 people have been killed and several others injured after an Israeli strike flattened a multi-story residential building in central Beirut overnight, Lebanese officials said.

The attack was the third strike in the Lebanese capital this week, part of a wave of amped-up Israeli military activity across the country.

A powerful airstrike killed 11 people in central Beirut on Saturday, the Lebanese civil defence said, shaking the capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.The attack destroyed an eight-storey building and caused a large number of fatalities and injuries,

Israel has carried out massive air strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese media say, and there are reports of several deaths. An eight-storey residential building was completely destroyed with five missiles in the capital's Basta district, according to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA).

An Israeli air strike in central Beirut killed at least four people early Saturday, bringing down a residential building and jolting residents across the city out of bed as Israel kept up its air campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon's civil defense said the death toll was provisional as emergency responders were still digging through the rubble looking for survivors. The strikes were the fourth on the Lebanese capital in less than a week.

The strikes were the fourth on Beirut in less than a week. The escalation comes after a U.S. envoy traveled to the region this week in an attempt to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Gaza Powerful explosions rocked central Beirut in the early hours of Saturday as five Israeli air strikes hit an eight-storey building in the densely populated Basta neighbourhood. At least 11 people were killed and 63 injured,