Israel-Gaza-Lebanon live updates: 15 dead, dozens injured in central Beirut strikes

Rescue efforts were underway after Israeli airstrikes targeted central Beirut on Saturday morning, killing at least 15 people, Lebanese authorities said.

The powerful strikes occurred at around 4 a.m. local time, destroying an eight-story residential building in the densely populated Basta neighborhood in the heart of Lebanon's capital. So far, emergency responders have pulled 23 people alive but wounded from the rubble as well as the lifeless bodies of others, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense, which noted that the casualty count was provisional as search and rescue operations were still underway as of 10:30 a.m. local time.

ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the strikes.

It’s the fourth round of Israeli strikes to hit Beirut in less than a week, shaking the city as the Israeli military presses its offensive against the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The escalation comes on the heels of U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein's trip to the region earlier this week in an attempt to clinch a cease-fire deal to end the more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has erupted into full-on war in the past two months with Israeli ground troops invading southern Lebanon as warplanes bomb Hezbollah strongholds in both the south and in the capital.

Israeli forces conducted a strike in Beirut's southern suburb Friday evening, causing a bright flash in the dark.

At least 62 people were killed and 111 people were wounded from Israeli attacks in Lebanon Thursday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said in a post on X.

Israeli forces issued an evacuation order to residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut Friday in a post on X.

At least 3,645 people have been killed and 15,355 people have been wounded since Israel's increased attacks on Lebanon began in mid-September, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.

-ABC News' Bruno Nota

At least 38 people have been killed in Gaza since Friday morning, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Friday.

Israeli forces said they conducted an operation in Beit Lahia in the northern area of the Gaza Strip during the night between Wednesday and Thursday. During the operation, two Hamas company commanders were killed, the IDF said in a statement about the operation.

Israeli forces also killed the commander of the Islamic Jihad's Rocket Unit in central Gaza with an Israeli airstrike Wednesday, the IDF said in a separate statement.

The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said Israeli forces targeted the hospital with bombings two days in a row Thursday and Friday. One doctor and a number of patients were injured from the attacks, the director said.

-ABC News' Sami Zyara, Diaa Ostaz and Jordana Miller

Hungarian Prime Viktor Orban said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would face no risk of arrest if he visited Hungary, after the International Criminal Court issued arrest a warrant for the Israeli official.

Orban branded the arrest warrants a "brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable decision."

Orban, who is often at odds with his European Union peers, has forged close ties with Netanyahu.

"Today I will invite Israel's prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu, for a visit to Hungary and in that invite I will guarantee him that if he comes, the ICC ruling will have no effect in Hungary, and we will not follow its contents," Orban said in a statement Friday.

Multiple countries and blocs, including Ireland, Norway, the EU, the Netherlands and Canada, said they would carry out the ICC arrest warrant commitment issued on Thursday.

The U.S., which is not a party to the court, said the ICC does not have jurisdiction to issue the warrants. Netanyahu called the arrest warrants "absurd" and "anti-semitic."