Written by Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The mayor of a major city in southern Lebanon was among 16 people killed when an Israeli airstrike destroyed the municipal headquarters in Lebanon's biggest attack on an official building since the Israeli air campaign began.
Lebanese officials condemned the incident, which also injured more than 50 people in Nabatieh, the provincial capital, and said it was evidence that Israel's campaign against the armed group Hezbollah was shifting to targeting the country of Lebanon.
The Israelis “deliberately targeted a municipal council meeting to discuss the city's work and the aid situation” to help people displaced by the Israeli campaign, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.
Israel also raided the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia on Thursday morning, reported the Syrian media SANA.
Firefighters are working to put out the blaze, SANA said, while Syrian state television reported that the country's air defenses had engaged Israeli targets over Latakia.
The UN mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said its peacekeepers saw an Israeli tank firing at their tower near Kfar Kela in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning. Two cameras were destroyed, and a tower was damaged, UNIFIL said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on UNIFIL's statement.
Earlier, Israel asked the United Nations to evacuate members of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force from southern Lebanon to safety.
UNIFIL says its troops have been attacked repeatedly by Israel, although Israel has denied accounts of those incidents.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, visiting northern Israel near the border, said Israel would not stop its attacks on Hezbollah to allow talks.
“We will hold the talks personally. I said this on the first day, I said it in Gaza and I said it here,” he said in a statement issued by his office.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin on Wednesday spoke to Gallant and “underscored the importance of taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces,” according to the Defense Ministry.
Israel is launching its ground and air campaign in Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah a year after the Iran-backed militant group fired across the border in support of the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza.
In recent weeks, Israel has killed the top leadership of Hezbollah and pushed them into the southern border towns, saying that its purpose is to make it safe for tens of thousands of Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel that has been taken out from under Hezbollah fire.
Israel first issued an evacuation notice for Nabatieh, a city of tens of thousands of people, on October 3. At the time, the city's Mayor Ahmed Kahil told Reuters he would not leave.
Asked about the Israeli strike in Nabatieh, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to comment on the specifics of the strikes but said the US understands that Hezbollah operates in areas that include civilian homes and supports limited strikes targeting the group.
“Obviously we don't want to see all the villages destroyed. We don't want to see people's homes destroyed,” said Miller.
Israel said on Wednesday it struck a number of Hezbollah targets in the Nabatieh area and the navy also attacked a number of targets in southern Lebanon.
It says it has “destroyed” the tunnel network used by Hezbollah's elite Radwan Forces in the heart of the city near the Israeli border, publishing a video showing multiple explosions shaking a cluster of buildings. Lebanese officials said it was the small town of Mhaibib.
STRIKES IN SOUTH BEIRUT CONTINUE AGAIN
Israeli warplanes on Wednesday also struck areas south of Beirut, in the first attack on the city since October 10, when two strikes near the city center killed 22 people and demolished buildings in the densely populated area.
Israeli operations in Lebanon killed at least 2,350 people last year, according to the health ministry, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced.
The UN says a quarter of the country is under evacuation orders. The number of taxpayers does not distinguish between civilians and soldiers but includes hundreds of women and children.
About 50 Israelis, soldiers and civilians, were killed at the same time, according to Israel.
Having long accused UNIFIL of failing to achieve its goal of keeping armed forces on the border, Israel adopted a conciliatory tone earlier on Wednesday.
“The Israeli government attaches great importance to the activities of UNIFIL and has no intention of harming the organization or its personnel,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
The 10,000 troops include soldiers from 50 countries, including 2,500 Italian, French and Spanish soldiers, causing tension between Israel and other prominent European allies.
