The strike, in the south of Lebanon, killed at least 16 people, Lebanese officials said. Israel, which also struck near Beirut, said it was targeting Hezbollah militants.
The Israeli military on Wednesday bombed the densely populated southern outskirts of Beirut for the first time in days and also struck a southern Lebanese city where local officials were meeting, killing at least 16 people, including the mayor, according to Lebanese officials.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said in a statement that the attack on the southern city of Nabatieh had “intentionally targeted” a local government meeting.
Nabatieh’s mayor, Ahmad Kahil, and several members of a local relief team that the United Nations had worked with for more than a year were killed, and at least 52 people were wounded, according to U.N. and Lebanese officials. The strikes hit the city’s municipal building, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
“Health care facilities, mosques, historical markets, residential complexes and now government buildings are being reduced to rubble,” the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it had struck “dozens of Hezbollah terrorist targets” in the area, including command centers and weapons storage facilities “embedded by Hezbollah adjacent to civilian infrastructure.”
