With the danger of a wider Middle East war looming, Israel on Friday bombarded part of the Lebanese capital, killing at least 14 people and wounding 66 others, Lebanese authorities said.

The attack hit a seven-story residential building in Beirut, causing it to collapse. Crowds milled in front of the blast site, walking gingerly over a carpet of shattered glass, crushed masonry and downed power lines. Many were grimly waiting for news of loved ones trapped under the wreckage.

“My friend is trapped in the rubble of the central building,” said Mahmoud, a 23-year-old who gave only his first name. “I hope he’s martyred. He would be happier with that than being wounded.”

Almost four hours after the blast, ambulances were still coming in as crews worked to extricate those trapped inside. Exterior walls of one nearby residential building were blown off, revealing the rooms inside as if a dollhouse.

Some took to social media to post pictures of missing family members.

The strike came just days after thousands of sabotaged electronic devices exploded across Lebanon, killing 30 and wounding thousands, an action widely attributed to Israel.

Ahead of Friday’s Israeli strike, Hezbollah had pounded northern Israel on Thursday night with rockets. The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed revenge for the spate of bombings in Lebanon through pagers and walkie-talkies widely blamed on Israel.

Friday’s attack targeted and killed several commanders in the Radwan Force, Hezbollah’s special forces, said Israeli army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

Among them was Ibrahim Aqil, whom Hagari described as a senior military commander who is close to Nasrallah and had been planning a large-scale attack in the Galilee region of northern Israel. The U.S. previously accused Aqil of responsibility for the deadly bombings of U.S. Marines in Lebanon in the 1980s.

Hezbollah confirmed Aqil’s death late Friday.

The strike occurred in Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut where Hezbollah is headquartered. It is a densely populated area with a vibrant commercial sector, shops and markets.

The Lebanese civil defense said at least two apartment buildings had collapsed.

Residents were told to evacuate the area. Families appeared by the barricade, looking dazed as they carried duffel bags, suitcases and pet carriers.

At one point, an older official took a megaphone, asking the crowd to disperse and let rescue crews do their job. He exhorted the crowd to show their defiance against Israel, shouting, “We are at your service, Nasrallah.”

Israel and Hezbollah renewed their clashes in October, when the Iran-backed militant group stepped up cross-border attacks in what it said was solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians fighting Israel in the Gaza Strip.

In recent days, Israel has repeatedly telegraphed a more aggressive stance toward Hezbollah. On Thursday, the Israeli military said its chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, had recently approved new plans for the northern conflict zone. A day earlier, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared that the conflict was entering a “new phase.”

The escalation comes even as U.S. officials crisscross the region imploring leaders to avoid inflaming tensions — a plea evidently ignored. Biden administration officials, who have been unsuccessful in securing a cease-fire in Gaza that could ease the regional conflict, were quick to insist the U.S. had nothing to do with Friday’s attack, a similar disclaimer made following the explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies.

“Our intensive diplomacy efforts continue,” White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby said Friday. “We believe, continue to believe, that a diplomatic solution is the best way forward. … War is not inevitable.”

Bulos reported from Beirut and Wilkinson from Washington. Times staff writer Laura King in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.

The House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan bill increasing U.S. Secret Service (USSS) protections for major presidential and vice presidential candidates after two foiled assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump.

It passed with an overwhelming unanimous 405 to 0 vote, a rare show of bipartisanship in Congress.

The legislation was introduced by Reps. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., in response to the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

A 20-year-old gunman was able to open fire on the rally from a rooftop just outside the rally perimeter, killing one attendee and injuring Trump and two others.

WATCH ON FOX NATION: THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATIONS OF DONALD TRUMP

Weeks later, USSS agents arrested a man near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course who had been waiting for the ex-president during a game on Sunday with an SKS rifle.

If passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden, the bill would mandate a comprehensive review of USSS protective standards and impose uniform standards for the security of presidents, vice presidents and major White House candidates.

“Regardless of how every American feels, regardless of how every American intends to vote, it is the right of the American people to determine the outcome of this election. The idea that our election could be decided by an assassin’s bullet should shake the conscience of our nation, and it requires swift action by the federal government,” Lawler said during debate on the bill Thursday.

TRUMP BLAMES BIDEN-HARRIS ‘RHETORIC’ FOR LATEST ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, SAYS HE WILL ‘SAVE THE COUNTRY’

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., is the lead Republican on the bill. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“It is shocking that it took a second assassination attempt for Donald Trump to get the same level of protective detail from the Secret Service as the president of the United States.”

Progressive Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said he is backing the bill but argued it would be meaningless without stronger firearm laws.

“I support this legislation because the Secret Service must be able to protect our highest elected officials and candidates. But this legislation will do nothing to make the rest of us any safer, or change the fact that gun violence continues to take the lives of more than 100 Americans every single day,” Nadler said.

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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, pushed back on Nadler’s comments and accused him of painting the assassination attempts as “Republicans’ fault.”

“Next thing they’re going to say is, oh, some crazy guy on the left tries to assassinate President Trump, and it’s President Trump’s fault. Oh, wait a minute. They said that too. This is ridiculous,” Jordan said.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., is leading the bill on the Democratic side. (Getty)

It is not immediately clear how the bill would classify “major” candidates.

Following the first attempt against Trump, Biden extended heightened USSS protection to the ex-president, who he was still running against at the time before dropping out of the race.

He also granted a request by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then running as a third-party candidate, for USSS protection.

The Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal from the Nevada Green Party, keeping the progressive party off the state’s November presidential ballot.

The justices refused to intervene and overturn the state supreme court, which ruled two weeks ago the Green Party used the wrong form when gathering signatures. There were no dissents.

Washington attorney Jay Sekulow, who represented former President Trump during his first impeachment trial, filed an emergency appeal last week on behalf of the Green Party. It urged justices to put the name of Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate, on the state’s ballots.

Sekulow said the Green Party candidates had been “wrongly ripped from the ballot and Nevadans who would vote for them in this election are robbed of their opportunity to do so.” He said the state court’s decision violated the U.S. Constitution and its guarantee of due process of law.

Democrats have been worried that Stein and the Green Party could draw the support of thousands of left-leaning voters, and potentially tip the outcome in favor of Trump in states where the two major parties are closely divided.

Sekulow’s involvement in the case suggests conservatives agree.

Stein’s campaign said she will be on the ballot in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

In June, Nevada Democrats sued and said the Green Party failed to comply with the state’s rules for minor parties seeking a spot on the ballot. While the Green Party organizers submitted nearly 30,000 signatures — far more than required — they used a form that did not require the signers to attest they were registered voters in their county.

In response, Green Party officials said they had relied on an email from a state election official that included a form for petition drives that did not require signers to attest they were registered voters.

In August, a state judge ruled against the Democrats and said the Green Party was “in substantial compliance” with the law.

But the Nevada Supreme Court disagreed in a 5-2 decision and ruled on Sept. 6 the Green Party had failed to qualify for the ballot. The majority said the disputed email was “an unfortunate mistake” but noted the state employee had directed the Green Party to the “Minor Party Qualification Guide,” which set out the required forms for gathering signatures.

Nevada’s Secretary of State Francisco V. Aguilar told the court it was too late to add the Green Party candidates.

“Mail ballots for the nearly 2 million active registered Nevada voters have already gone to print, and any changes ordered at this time would, at a minimum, require: redesign, repreparation, and re-proof across all of Nevada’s 17 counties,” he said.

With the election approaching, courts are being asked to weigh in on last-minute disputes.

Last month, the Republican National Committee urged the justices to block 40,000 Arizona voters from casting a ballot because they had registered using a federal form that did not require displaying a birth certificate or other proof of their U.S. citizenship.

They lost over the dissents of Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito and Neil M. Gorsuch.

But the court by a 5-4 vote said the state may require proof of citizenship from its newly registered voters.