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Dubai: Israel expanded its airstrikes in Lebanon on Wednesday, killing a city mayor, 15 others toppling buildings and causing widespread destruction in several southern areas.
Dozens of strikes on Hezbollah targeted Nabatiyeh and Qana, a village that suffered heavy civilian casualties in past conflicts.
The Israeli army announced that its warplanes struck Hezbollah positions in Nabatiyeh, a city under the influence of Hezbollah and its ally, Amal.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, 16 people were killed and 52 injured when airstrikes hit two municipal buildings, prompting rescuers to search for survivors in the rubble. Among the dead was the city’s mayor, who local officials reported died in what they described as a “belt of fire” created by the strikes.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, stating that Israel “deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council discussing the city’s services and relief efforts.” Rescue operations were also underway in Qana, where Israeli strikes on Tuesday resulted in three deaths and 54 injuries. AFP footage revealed extensive destruction in the village, with entire buildings flattened.
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Hezbollah locked in clashes
Israeli jets also resumed strikes on Beirut for the first time in nearly a week, despite Lebanon’s prime minister receiving assurances from the US that attacks on the capital would ease.
Hezbollah said its fighters were locked in clashes at “point-blank range” near the southern village of Al Qawzah.
Hassan Dbouk, head of the Tyre district municipalities, warned that the death toll in Qana could rise as rescue operations continue.
15 buildings destroyed
Mohammed Ibrahim, a rescuer with the Risala Scouts, reported that more than 15 buildings were completely destroyed, and rescuers pulled two bodies from the rubble. This escalation echoes past tragedies in Qana, where Israeli strikes in 1996 and 2006 resulted in significant civilian casualties. EU ministers’ call
While the US seeks a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon, there is currently no active call for a ceasefire. Since the onset of Israel’s air campaign against Hezbollah nearly a month ago, at least 1,600 people have been killed in Lebanon, with the toll likely including both combatants and civilians.
On Wednesday, 16 European Union defence ministers called “for maximum political and diplomatic pressure on Israel” to prevent further incidents against peacekeepers in Lebanon.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said his country “places great importance on the activities of Unifil and has no intention of harming the organisation or its personnel”.
The Lebanese Red Cross said two paramedics were wounded on Wednesday in an Israeli strike on a south Lebanon village while a rescue mission coordinated with UN peacekeepers was underway.
Growing health risk; 50 aid trucks allowed
Unicef, the UN’s agency for children, said Lebanese children were “at growing risk of” health issues “including waterborne diseases like cholera, hepatitis and diarrhoea” because the fighting had damaged or disrupted essential services.
The mounting campaign comes after the US linked its military support to Israel to the provision of humanitarian aid in Gaza, warning Israeli ministers that a law may require limiting military support if they don’t allow more help to reach the besieged Palestinian territory within 30 days. Fifty trucks of aid were let into northern Gaza on Wednesday, the IDF said on X.
The World Food Programme says 96 per cent of Gaza’s population faces acute levels of food insecurity after a year of war between Israel and Hamas, another Iran-backed group, which controls the enclave.
Israel has stepped up attacks on Hamas in Gaza in recent days, and 65 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours, according to officials with the Hamas-run health ministry.
First cholera case
Lebanon announced its first confirmed cholera case since the Israeli invasion. Lebanon had reported 18 cases of the disease and two probable deaths in the north of the country in 2022, the first outbreak in nearly three decades, according to the World Health Organization.
According to the UN’s refugee agency, Israel has told people in a quarter of Lebanon’s territory to move, with 1.2 million people displaced by the conflict.
