Israeli strikes kill 27; City mayor dead | News

The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hezbollah commander in late Tuesday attacks on the southern city of Cana that killed 15 people. Associated Press photos and videos of the scene showed several buildings leveled and others whose top floors had collapsed. In search of more victims, rescue workers carried away the remains of the dead and used a bulldozer to remove debris.

Israel said the target was Jalal Mustafa Hariri, a Hezbollah commander in charge of the Cana area.

In 1996, Israeli artillery fire on a United Nations compound housing hundreds of displaced people in Qana killed at least 100 civilians and injured scores of others, including four UN peacekeepers. During the 2006 war, an Israeli attack on a residential building killed nearly three dozen people, a third of them children. Israel said at the time that it hit a Hezbollah rocket launcher behind the building.

“Qana always gets its share,” Mayor Mohammed Krasht told the AP, citing the city’s dark history.

Lebanon’s acting prime minister, Najib Mikati, meanwhile, accused Israel of “deliberately targeting” a local council meeting to discuss relief efforts in Nabatiyeh, where six people were killed.

“Given this reality, what solution can be hoped for?” he asked in a statement.

Attacks continued across Lebanon, including in the eastern Bekaa Valley and in Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military said it attacked Hezbollah command centers and weapons facilities embedded in civilian areas. Lebanon’s crisis response unit recorded 138 airstrikes and grenade attacks on Wednesday.