An Israeli airstrike reduces a nine-story apartment building in Beirut’s southern suburb to a large mound of rubble. A man covered in dust flails lifelessly in the arms of a plainclothes rescuer. A corpse in a body bag is whizzed past parked ambulances on the back of a quad bike.

Israel has dealt serious blows to Hezbollah this week by targeting its communications and decimating the leadership of its elite unit, but without crushing the Lebanese group's ability to fight, observers say.

As rescue crews recovered victims of Israel's strike on Beirut, Israeli warplanes launched a withering attack on Lebanon's south amid fears of wider war.

Sunday opened with a new barrage of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel, per the Israel Defense Forces, which continued its own campaign of cross-border strikes.

The Hezbollah militia reported launching an attack on an industrial complex and an Israeli military base near the port city of Haifa in northern Israel early on Sunday, while the Israeli army said it launched attacks on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

The Iran-backed military group's deputy leader, Naim Qassem, said the force had entered a new phase of its battle with Israel, warning: 'But as we are pained, you will also be pained'.