An Israeli air strike has flattened a building near one of Beirut’s busiest traffic junctions, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel kept up its intensified bombardment of Hezbollah-controlled areas of the city.

One of several air strikes on Friday morning, the attack struck near the Tayouneh junction in an area where the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs meet other parts of the city, a more central target than most that Israel has hit.

Israel has this week stepped up air strikes against the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs – an escalation that has coincided with indications of movement in US-led diplomatic contacts towards ending the conflict.

The US ambassador to Lebanon on Thursday submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon’s parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is endorsed by Hezbollah to negotiate, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters without providing details.

The draft was Washington’s first written proposal to halt fighting between its ally Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in at least several weeks, the sources said.

Before the latest air strikes, the Israeli military issued a warning on social media identifying buildings in the southern suburbs and telling residents to leave, saying they were near Hezbollah facilities.

The sound of an incoming missile could be heard in footage showing the air strike near Tayouneh.

The targeted building turned into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into the adjacent Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.

On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s Energy Minister and a member of its security cabinet, told Reuters that prospects for a ceasefire were the most promising since the conflict began.

The Washington Post reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire with the aim of delivering an early foreign policy win to President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to be strongly pro-Israel.

–AAP