Mayor among 16 killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon

UNIFIL says Israelis fired at their watchtower.

BEIRUT:

An Israeli airstrike destroyed the municipal headquarters in a major town in south Lebanon on Wednesday, killing 16 people including the mayor, in the biggest attack on an official Lebanese state building since the Israeli air campaign began.

Lebanese officials denounced the attack, which also wounded more than 50 people in Nabatieh, a provincial capital, saying it was proof that Israel's campaign against Hezbollah was now shifting to target the Lebanese state.

The Israelis "intentionally targeted a meeting of the municipal council to discuss the city's service and relief situation" to aid people displaced by the Israeli campaign, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.

The UN mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said its peacekeepers observed an Israeli tank firing at their watchtower near southern Lebanon's Kfar Kela on Wednesday morning. Two cameras were destroyed, and the tower was damaged, UNIFIL said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the UNIFIL statement.

Asked about the Israeli strike on Nabatieh, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller declined to comment on the circumstances of specific strikes but said the US understands Hezbollah operates from places like civilian homes and supported limited strikes to target the group.

"Obviously, we'd not want to see entire villages destroyed. We don't want to see civilian homes destroyed," Miller said. "So what we support are limited incursions to attack and degrade Hezbollah, to degrade Hezbollah infrastructure. Not to target civilians, not to destroy civilian homes, not to wipe villages out, we do support campaigns to take out Hezbollah."

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli warplanes hit Beirut's southern suburbs for the first time in nearly a week. Reuters heard two blasts and saw plumes of smoke rising from two separate neighbourhoods. It was the first attack on Beirut since Oct 10, when two strikes near the city centre killed 22 people and brought down entire buildings in a densely populated neighbourhood. Israeli operations in Lebanon have killed at least 2,350 people over the last year, according to the health ministry, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying that Israel "deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city's services and relief situation".

Rescuers were also searching through rubble for survivors in the southern Lebanese village of Qana, where Israeli strikes killed three people and injured 54 on Tuesday, the Lebanese ministry said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli air strikes hit Hezbollah's main stronghold in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut.