Beirut: Israel launched waves of deadly airstrikes across Lebanon’s north-east that killed at least 45 people on Friday, authorities said, and transformed once-bustling neighbourhood blocks in Beirut’s southern suburbs into smouldering ruins.

Meanwhile in central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began Thursday, hospital officials said. Israel said it targeted Hamas infrastructure near the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The latest violence comes against the backdrop of the Biden administration’s renewed diplomatic push, days before the US election, to reach temporary ceasefire deals. Israel has stepped up its offensive against Hamas’ remaining fighters in Gaza, pulverising areas in the north and raising fears of worsening humanitarian conditions for civilians still there.

In recent weeks Israel has broadened its strikes in Lebanon to bigger urban hubs, like Baalbek, after initially targeting smaller border villages in the south, where Hezbollah draws deep support. Iran-backed Hezbollah doubles as a major political party and provider of social services in Lebanon.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles from Lebanon into Israel in solidarity with Hamas immediately after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. This year-long cross-border fighting boiled over to full-blown war on October 1, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.

In Lebanon’s north-east – where small farming villages nestled between the country’s mountain ranges had largely been spared the worst of Israeli bombardment until last month – Israel conducted a series of heavy airstrikes Friday, killing at least 45 people, driving more families to flee with whatever they could carry and sending thick plumes of smoke over the horizon.

Intensified Israeli airstrikes on and around the north-eastern city of Baalbek this week have prompted 60,000 people to flee their homes, emptying many small villages in the area, said Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region.

Rescuers searched for survivors after airstrikes killed seven people in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, said Governor Bachir Khodr, and brought down a building believed to be housing 20 people. Further Israeli strikes in the north-east killed 11 people in the village of Amhaz, five people in the town of Nahleh, and 14 others across the Bekaa Valley, Khodr added.