It took less than five seconds for the building in southern Beirut to be reduced to rubble.
Residents heard a screeching sound and watched as the missile hit the ground beneath the multi-story building, then sank, sending a plume of gray smoke and debris flying in the wake of the strike.
Videos circulating on social media and confirmed by NBC News, showed several men watching the strike in the remote Lebanese capital, standing next to their cars as the building collapsed. Others drove their motorbikes away from the scene.
In another video, one man can be seen running towards the strike as a loud explosion rings out. The other four men hurry as one warns the others to ‘back off so the flying stones don’t fall on you.
A third video that captures the strike from a distance shows a cloud of dust washing over the area.
At the moment it was not clear if there was anyone inside the building or if there were any casualties, but the strike was caught in many corners by people who had gathered outside.
“They targeted two buildings, not one,” a man can be heard shouting in a third video. Two explosions can be heard in several videos, although it is unclear where the second explosion came from.
Israel has attacked the city in recent days, increasing its attacks that have caused panic.
Throughout Sunday night, Israeli soldiers raided bank branches in Lebanon to target Hezbollah’s finances.
Hundreds of residents of the Lebanese capital and its suburbs were forced to flee their homes after the Israeli security forces issued a series of evacuation orders, followed by explosions.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari warned that orders to evacuate residents of Beirut and other areas of Lebanon were issued ahead of strikes targeting buildings that he says are “used to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist activities.”
Officials at a hospital in Dahieh, an area south of Beirut known as a Hezbollah stronghold, told NBC News that they had evacuated the medical center after Israel said there was a Hezbollah cache under the site.
The Israeli military suspects that Hezbollah has hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold hidden in a basement built under the Sahel General Hospital, a charge the facility’s director denies.
However, the IDF said it would not attack the hospital directly, but the director of the medical center, Dr. Fadi Alami, told NBC News that officials are still moving to evacuate the hospital.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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