Israeli attack on Lebanese municipal building kills 16, including mayor

BEIRUT, Oct 17 (Reuters) – The mayor of a major city in southern Lebanon was among 16 people killed when an Israeli airstrike destroyed the municipal headquarters. This was the largest attack on an official Lebanese state building since Israeli airstrikes began.

Lebanese officials condemned the incident, which also injured more than 50 people in Nabatieh, a provincial capital, saying it was evidence that Israel’s campaign against the armed group Hezbollah was now shifting to the Lebanese state.

The Israelis “deliberately targeted a local council meeting to discuss the city’s supply and aid situation” to help people displaced by the Israeli campaign, acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.

European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said Israel’s “brutal response” to the Hamas attack that sparked the war has led to a devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza that is now continuing in Lebanon.

“Humanitarian aid workers were targeted and killed, hundreds of them. There is no safety and security for humanitarian work to be organized in a satisfactory manner,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of an ASEAN event in Jakarta, describing the delivery of humanitarian aid as “totally inadequate.”

Fears of a regional conflict have grown after Israel vowed on October 1 to retaliate for an Iranian missile attack.

Iran-allied Houthi fighters in Yemen, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s years-long war in Gaza, have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November.

Israel also launched attacks on the Syrian Mediterranean port city of Latakia early Thursday, Syrian state media reported.

Evacuation notice

Israel first issued an evacuation notice for Nabatea, a city with tens of thousands of residents, on October 3. At the time, the city’s mayor, Ahmed Kahil, told Reuters he would not leave the city.

Asked about the Israeli attack on Nabatea, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to comment on the circumstances of specific attacks, but said the U.S. understands that Hezbollah operates from homes, among other places, and supports limited attacks against the group.

“Of course we don’t want entire villages to be destroyed. We don’t want to see civilians’ homes destroyed,” Miller said.

Israel said on Wednesday it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in the Nabataea area and its navy also struck dozens of targets in southern Lebanon.

It said it dismantled a network of tunnels used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces in the heart of a town near the border with Israel and released a video showing multiple explosions rocking a cluster of buildings. Lebanese officials said it was in the small town of Mhaibib.

Israeli operations in Lebanon last year killed at least 2,350 people and displaced more than 1.2 million people, according to the Health Ministry. The death toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but includes hundreds of women and children.

According to Israel, about 50 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, were killed during the same period.

Peacekeepers report more fires

The UN Mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said its peacekeepers observed an Israeli tank firing at its watchtower near Kfar Kela in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning. Two cameras were destroyed and the tower was damaged, UNIFIL said.

The Israeli military said the incident, the latest in a series of attacks that UNIFIL said targeted its troops, was being investigated.

“UNIFIL infrastructure sites and forces are not a target and any irregular incident will be thoroughly investigated,” the military said, adding that Hezbollah “has operated from sites established within and adjacent to UNIFIL posts for many years.”

Israel has previously called on the United Nations to move members of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon out of the combat zone for their safety.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit to northern Israel near the border that Israel would not stop its attack on Hezbollah to allow negotiations.

“We will only conduct the negotiations under fire. I said that on day one, I said it in Gaza and I say it here,” he said, according to a statement from his office.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin spoke to Gallant on Wednesday and “reiterated the importance of taking all necessary measures to ensure the security of UNIFIL forces and the Lebanese Armed Forces,” according to the Defense Department.

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