Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed 23 people, including seven children, in the Jbeil district village of Almat north of the capital Beirut.
AFPTV footage showed rescuers rummaging with their bare hands through the wreckage of a house that had been completely razed, pulling out bodies wrapped in blankets while an excavator moved the rubble.
The Shiite Muslim majority village of Almat, about 30 kilometers from Beirut, is located in a mostly Christian region. It is outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds of south Beirut and south and east Lebanon, which Israel has heavily bombed since late September in its war against the Iran-backed movement.
"The Israeli enemy strike on Almat in the Jbeil district killed 23 people including seven children, in an updated but not final toll," the health ministry said in a statement.
It also said body parts had been recovered from the site and were being identified.