Israel injures UN peacekeepers again, raising more concerns about its operation in Lebanon

Geoff Bennett:

It has been another day of widening war in Lebanon. Israeli troops fired again on U.N. positions, wounding two, and IDF troops also fired on Lebanese armed forces.

The leaders of France, Spain, and Italy issued a joint letter denouncing the strikes on U.N. forces, and President Biden said he too asked Israel to stop the attacks. That's as Hezbollah militants fired dozens more rockets into Israel today.

But, as Leila Molana-Allen reports, the most severe Israeli strike was overnight in Central Beirut.

Leila Molana-Allen:

All through the night, the wail of sirens, plumes of acrid smoke, the bitter smell of fire.

Last night, at least two Israeli airstrikes hit the very heart of Beirut without warning in a busy residential area most believed it was off-limits. But as the war intensifies, Lebanese are fast learning that nowhere is safe.

Grandmother Hannah has lived here for 40 years. She thought last night was her last.

Hannah Hasbineh, Beirut Resident (through interpreter):

I was sitting at home watching television when I suddenly saw something like a meteor and then it exploded. I thought I was going to die.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Walking down this familiar street, seeing her local grocer's fresh vegetables now covered in soot and building dust, she can't believe her eyes.

Hannah Hasbineh (through interpreter):

This area is amazing and peaceful. I don't know why this happened. We experienced a number of wars over the years, but nothing like this one. The displaced families from the south and southern suburb are staying here. Where should they go now?

Leila Molana-Allen:

The janitor of her neighbor's apartment block and his whole family were killed. And many others who died here were families displaced from the south. They took refuge here because they thought it was safe.

The man Israel says it was targeting, Wafiq Safa, Hezbollah's main intermediary with Western agencies and governments here, escaped the strikes unscathed. Many civilians did not. At least 22 people died last night and nearly 120 were injured. Overwhelmed local hospitals worked until dawn to save who they could.

It's a shift E.R. doctor Jihad Bekaai won't forget.

Dr. Jihad Bekaii, Makassed Hospital Beirut (through interpreter):

Most of the injured were women and children. The kids all had critical injuries in the stomach and thighs or heads. One young girl died right away.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Desperate families arrived one after the other begging for news of missing loved ones.

Dr. Jihad Bekaai (through interpreter):

They were all in a state of extreme panic, not knowing if their relatives were injured or even alive. When they injured our children and women and not military men, it affects us a lot. They came here to seek shelter, thinking that the city was safe. They were wrong.

Leila Molana-Allen:

As the strikes escalate, Jihad is sealing himself for another night of treating their victims.

Dr. Jihad Bekaai (through interpreter):

I can only pray this war ends and the world wakes up to the fact that these attacks are targeting civilians, not soldiers.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Down the road, a scene of carnage.

The airstrikes in this residential neighborhood last night brought down this entire high-rise apartment block. They were digging bodies out of the rubble through the night, and now civil defense volunteers are trying to clear what's left of these homes.

Residents retrieve what they can from the rubble, inconsolable, mixed in with the twisted metal and fractured concrete, the pieces of normal family lives turned to ashes.

This was a child's bedroom, a small mattress, dolls, a Barbie coloring book. In the background, the ever-present sound of an Israeli drone flying above.

Ahmed Khatib's family had just finished supper when there was a booming flash and their wall caved in.

Ahmed Khatib, Beirut Resident (through interpreter):

We heard a bang, and suddenly I couldn't see anything. I ran straight to my daughter. She'd been sleeping in her bed, but I found her on the floor covered in dust. I don't know how I dug her out and rescued her. She was calling out to me. She's only little.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Ahmed's wife, Marwa, was buried here under the rubble as their 3-year-old daughter, Ayla, screamed for her mother. They could hear her struggling to breathe, so they rushed to dig her out. They managed to, but she's still in intensive care.

Ahmed Khatib (through interpreter):

The guy who was helping me dig her out told me: "Your wife is already dead."

Leila Molana-Allen:

As his aunt arrives to comfort him, Ahmed's steely resolve breaks. I ask him if I can see pictures of his wife and daughter, but he doesn't have any to look at while he waits for news of Marwa's condition, because his phone, like everything else they own, was destroyed in the explosion.

As Israel's military campaign spreads further across Lebanon and its capital, hundreds of lives are being torn apart in its wake. Everyone now fears they will be next.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen in Beirut.