An Israeli air strike in central Beirut has killed at least four people, bringing down a residential building and jolting residents across the city out of bed as Israel kept up its bombing campaign of Lebanon, AFP reports.

Rescue operations were underway at the site of the first strike in the morning, with an excavator removing the rubble of the eight-storey building, and a fire truck and civil defence rescuers stationed nearby as people gathered around the site.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Beirut “woke up to a horrific massacre”, after Israeli jets hit the building in the working-class Basta neighbourhood.

The NNA said Israeli jets had launched six missiles at the structure, causing “widespread destruction in buildings” nearby. The strike “killed four people and injured 23 others”, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement, giving a preliminary toll.