By Kareem Fahim, Suzan Haidamous

Yesterday’s massive Israeli airstrike that hit the high-rise building in a central Beirut district early on Saturday, killing at least 20 people, reignited fears that the war was escalating days after diplomatic talks aimed at a ceasefire raised hopes of an end of the conflict.

According to the Wahighton Post, the heavy explosion in the Basta district completely demolished the multi-storey building, while destroying or causing damage to other neighboring houses and buildings.

More than 60 people were injuredthe Lebanese Ministry of Health announced.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the attack. Its Arabic-speaking spokesman, Avichay Adraee, did not issue a warning before the strike, as he sometimes does. It happened at about 4 in the morning when most of the city was asleep.

Samar Zeineddine, 20, was awake at the time of the attack and was talking to her friend Nancy Awad, who was in the building on the first floor. Suddenly the line went dead. Hours later, she sat near the wreckage in a green plastic chair, crying, as rescuers searched for residents, orange stretchers and white bags in hand.

By nightfall, all that had been found of Nancy and 10 other people in the apartment were body parts, he said.

For almost a week, Beirut enjoyed the relative calm prevailing in the region due to the visit of the US President’s envoy Amos Hochstein. Hochstein, who is trying to secure a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, indicated that progress was being made as he headed to Israel for further talks.

“He was very optimistic before he left,” a Lebanese official involved in the negotiations said Wednesday, adding that the Lebanese government, which had reacted positively to the envoy’s 13-point draft, expected to hear from Hochstein within a day or two. .

As of Saturday night, “there was no word from Amos,” the official wrote in a message, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. The reasons for any standoff were unclear, but Israeli officials continued to insist on their right to strike Hezbollah even after the ceasefire, a condition Lebanese officials said would amount to a violation of sovereignty.

It appeared that Israel was “not yet finished with its military operations” in Lebanon, the official said. Now the ceasefire was “a matter of time”.

In recent days, Israel has been carrying out airstrikes across Lebanon, including central Beirut and its southern suburbs, as well as the Bekaa Valley, where dozens of people have been killed.

Twelve health workers in Lebanon were killed in Israeli strikes on Friday, including the director of Dar al-Amal University Hospital and at least five paramedics, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

In Beirut, the scale of Saturday’s attack led to speculation that Israel was targeting a Hezbollah leader. A member of parliament representing Hezbollah, Amin Siri, who visited the site on Saturday afternoon, said no one from Hezbollah was present in the building, only a “large number of witnesses and wounded”.

Several residents said there had been warnings or just rumors of an impending bombardment. Miriam al-Shami, 44, who lived with her family in a small house next to the building that was hit, said the warnings were quite alarming and that her husband had sent her and several of their children the night before bombing, in another part of Beirut, where one of her sons had rented a room.

Her husband, Emad, was left alone with one of their sons, 21-year-old Mohamad.

“I’m gone,” he said. “But a lot of people came back.”

She made a video call to her husband on Friday night, worried that the Israelis were pounding Beirut’s southern suburbs. “He said don’t worry, he’s far away from us.” Her son said she was “fine.”

After the bombing shook the city, she called again, and received no answer from her husband. Her son picked up his phone and said he was trapped under the rubble. “Send someone to get me out,” she pleaded. It took rescuers two hours, but Mohamad survived, Miriam said.

When paramedics arrived, Emad still had a pulse, but he later died in hospital. His mother was also killed.

*Kareem Fahim is the Washington Post’s Istanbul bureau chief and Middle East correspondent. He was previously at The New York Times for 11 years, covering the Arab world as a Cairo-based correspondent, among other things. Kareem also worked as a reporter for the Village Voice.

*Suzan Haidamous is a Beirut-based researcher and reporter for the Washington Post covering Lebanon, Syria and the Gulf. Before joining the Post in 2011, she worked as an English-language news anchor for Tele-Lebanon and freelanced for the Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald and other media. She is a member of the Women in Journalism collective.