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.

An Israeli airstrike that targeted Hezbollah commanders in a Beirut suburb on Friday killed at least 37 people, including three children and seven women, the Lebanese health ministry said, and rescuers were still searching on Saturday for people missing in the rubble.

With the death toll rising and rescuers still searching for people beneath the rubble, families were keeping a desperate watch over the site of an Israeli strike in Lebanon.