Rescue workers in Beirut searched on Saturday for people still missing in rubble after an Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah commanders the previous day killed at least 37 people in a suburb of the Lebanese capital,

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.

Israel has claimed the death of a senior Hezbollah military official after a rare Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed at least 37 people and wounded dozens more, shortly after Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets.