Mayor among 5 killed in Israel strike on municipal building in south Lebanon

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An Israeli air strike on the municipal building in Nabatieh, a major town in southern Lebanon, which serves as a provincial capital, killed the mayor Ahmed Kahil and at least five others, two security sources said according to Reuters.

Israeli occupation forces said they had struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in the Nabatieh area and dismantled underground infrastructure.

Footage from the area appears to show Israel carpet bombing the area with a line of smoke spreading after the numerous attacks.

Israeli navy forces, meanwhile, struck dozens of sites in southern Lebanon, in cooperation with troops on the ground, Israel’s military said today.

Hours earlier at least one Israeli strike hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, witnesses said, after the US said it opposed the scope of Israeli attacks in Lebanon’s capital.

The witnesses heard two blasts and saw plumes of smoke emerging from two separate neighbourhoods. It came after Israel issued an evacuation order early today, which mentioned only one building.

The Israeli military has in recent weeks carried out strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs without advance warnings, or with a warning for one area while striking more broadly.

Israeli military evacuation orders now affect more than a quarter of Lebanon, according to the UN refugee agency, two weeks after Israel began incursions into the south of the country that it says are aimed at driving back Hezbollah.

Some Western countries have been pushing for a ceasefire between the two neighbours, as well as in Gaza, though the United States says it continues to support Israel and was sending an anti-missile system and troops.

On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US had expressed its concerns to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration on the recent strikes.

“When it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut over the past few weeks, it’s something that we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we were opposed to,” he told reporters, adopting a harsher tone than Washington has taken so far.

Israel has also come under scrutiny because of its dealings with the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL in south Lebanon.

Since an Israeli ground operation against Hezbollah militants began on Oct. 1, UNIFIL positions have come under fire and two Israeli tanks burst through the gates of one of its bases, the UN says. Five peacekeepers have been injured.

European Union countries that contribute have no intention of pulling back despite Israeli calls to do so, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said.

Sixteen EU countries, including Austria, contribute to UNIFIL and the recent incidents have sparked widespread alarm among European governments.

On Sunday, Netanyahu called on the UN to withdraw UNIFIL from southern Lebanon.

READ: Did Hezbollah neglect to protect civilians in southern Lebanon?