Aftermath of Israeli air strikes on central Beirut

At least 22 people were killed and 117 others wounded in Israeli air strikes in central Beirut on Thursday, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said, in the third such attack on the centre of the Lebanese capital since Israel escalated its bombing campaign last month.

Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan said many people who had been displaced from southern Lebanon in recent weeks had sought shelter in the capital.

“Many people who had fled southern Lebanon had found shelter here, and it’s just becoming re-traumatising, unpredictable and dangerous,” Khan said.

The injured were brought to local hospitals, which sent out a warning asking people not to donate blood because they were already overwhelmed by the number of casualties and the inflow of family members.

Al Jazeera correspondents on the ground said a family of five people that had fled southern Lebanon was killed alongside three relatives who were hosting them.

The attacks, which came without warning, mark the third time since Israel expanded its campaign on Lebanon in late September that its bombs have hit outside Dahiyeh, a southern suburb that has seen near-daily air raids in recent weeks.

A Lebanese security source, without giving further details, said a “Hezbollah figure” was targeted after a series of killings of top officials in the Iran-aligned movement.