BEIRUT (AP) — Nearly 16 hours after an Israeli airstrike hit across the street from Beirut’s main public hospital, rescuers were still clearing debris Tuesday from the crowded slum. An excavator was digging through one of the destroyed buildings, picking up twisted metal and bricks in search of bodies.

Residents standing on piles of debris said an entire family was still missing under the rubble.

Mohammad Ibrahim, a Sudanese national, came to pick up his brother. “His cell phone is still ringing. We are trying to look for it,” he said. “I don’t know if he’s dead or alive.”

Hours later, health officials said five bodies had been found under the rubble. At least 18 people were killed, including four children, and at least 60 injured in the strike, which also caused damage across the street to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the main public medical facility. of the capital.

Jihad Saadeh, director of Rafik Hariri Hospital, said the strike broke several windows and solar panels at the medical facility, which continued to operate despite the damage and panic. No staff members were injured.

Saadeh said the hospital received no warning of an impending strike, just meters across the street. Neither did the residents of the slum, where several buildings were crowded together and which houses several migrant workers as well as Lebanese workers.

The Israeli army said it had struck a Hezbollah target, without further details. He added that he did not target the hospital itself.

It was difficult for rescue equipment to reach the area made up of clustered settlements and narrow, dusty roads.

Nizar, one of the rescuers, said he had been at the scene of the explosion since Monday evening. “It was too dark and there was so much panic,” he said, giving only his first name, in accordance with rescue team regulations. “People didn’t yet understand what had happened.”

The crowded slum was covered in debris, furniture and the remains of life poking out from the twisted metal and broken bricks. Residents who survived the massive explosion were still in shock, some still digging through the debris with their hands in search of their loved ones or what remained of their lives. Armed men stood guard at the site. Lebanese Civil Defense said Tuesday that five buildings were destroyed and 12 suffered serious damage. Among the dead are a Sudanese and at least one Syrian.

“It’s a very busy area; the buildings are very close. The destruction is massive,” Nizar said, explaining that the scale of the damage made rescue efforts more difficult.

Across the street, the hospital was still treating a few injured people. The morgue had received 13 bodies.

Hussein al-Ali, a nurse who was there at the time of the attack, said it took him a few minutes to realize that it was not the hospital that had been hit. Dust and smoke covered the hospital lobby. The windows of the dialysis unit, pharmacy and other parts of the hospital were broken. The false roof fell on his head and that of his colleagues.

“We were terrified. This is a crime,” al-Ali said. “It was like judgment day.”

It only took a few minutes for the wounded across the street to begin pouring in. Al-Ali said he had little time to breathe or reassure his terrified colleagues and shaken patients.

“Staff and patients thought the strike was here. We fled outside as the wounded arrived,” he said. And when he finished admitting the wounded, “we went out to carry our (killed) neighbors.” They are our neighbors.

Ola Eid survived the strike. She helped pull her neighbors’ children from the rubble, before realizing she was injured herself.

“The problem is we didn’t feel it. They did not inform us. We heard that they wanted to hit al-Sahel hospital,” said Eid, bandaged and still in shock, sitting at the hospital gate. Israel had hinted that another hospital miles away could possibly be a target, alleging it houses tunnels used by the Hezbollah militant group.

Eid, an actress, said she was playing with her neighbor’s children when the first explosion occurred. It knocked her to the ground and scattered the candy she was handing out to the children. She got up, not believing she was still alive, to find her neighbor’s son drenched in blood. One of them was killed instantly; the other remained in intensive care.

“I looked ahead and saw the children torn and injured,” she said. “The gas canisters were on fire. I didn’t know what to do: put out the fire or remove the children.