Middle East crisis: City mayor among 21 killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon

Israeli airstrikes pounded areas across Lebanon, killing at least 21 people, officials said Wednesday, including more than a dozen in a southern town where Israeli bombardments in previous conflicts are seared into local memory.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes late Tuesday on the southern town of Qana, where 15 people were killed.

In 1996, an Israeli attack on a United Nations compound in Qana killed at least 100 civilians. During the 2006 war, an Israeli strike in Qana killed nearly three dozen people. "Qana always gets its share," Mayor Mohammed Krasht told the AP, referring to the town's grim history.


In Nabatiyeh, more than half a dozen strikes hit the city and surrounding areas, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry, which said at least six people were killed and 43 wounded, with rescue efforts still underway. The city's mayor, Ahmad Kahil, was among those killed, provincial governor Huwaida Turk told AP.

Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack on the provincial capital, saying it "intentionally targeted a meeting of the municipal council to discuss the city's service and relief situation."

The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah command centres and weapons facilities that had been embedded in civilian areas of Nabatiyeh in Wednesday's strikes, without providing evidence.

Israel also resumed its barrage on Beirut's southern suburbs after a six-day pause, hitting what it said was an arms warehouse under an apartment building, without providing evidence. The military warned residents to evacuate before the strike, and there were no reports of casualties.

The strikes on southern Beirut came after Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the United States had given him assurances that Israel would curb its strikes on the capital.

Hezbollah has a strong presence in southern Beirut, known as the Dahiyeh, which is also a residential and commercial area home to large numbers of civilians and people unaffiliated with the militant group.

Some 2,300 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since last October, more than three-quarters of them in the past month, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Hezbollah's rocket attacks, which have extended their range and grown more intense over the past month, have driven around 60,000 Israelis from their homes in the north. The attacks have killed nearly 60 people in Israel, around half of them soldiers.