Yesterday's Israeli airstrike destroyed the municipal headquarters in Nabatia, a large city in southern Lebanon, and killed 16 people, including the mayor, in the biggest attack on an official Lebanese government building since the start of the Israeli campaign.
Lebanese officials condemned the attack, which also wounded more than 50 people, saying it was proof that Israel's campaign against the armed group Hezbollah was now shifting its focus to the Lebanese state, Reuters reported.
The Israelis deliberately targeted a municipal council meeting that was discussing the state of the city's services to help people displaced by the Israeli campaign, Acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said during a visit to northern Israel near the border that he would not stop the attack on Hezbollah to allow negotiations.
"Hezbollah is in big trouble. We will conduct negotiations only under fire. I said this on the first day, I said it in Gaza and I am speaking here," Galant said.
In recent weeks, Israel has assassinated senior Hezbollah leadership and infiltrated towns on the southern border, claiming it wants to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure to allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return home to northern Israel.
When Israel first issued an evacuation notice for Nabatia, home to tens of thousands of people, on October 3, Mayor Ahmed Kahil said he would not leave the city.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday that it attacked dozens of Hezbollah targets in the Nabataean area, and its navy also hit dozens of targets in southern Lebanon.
The statement said it had "dismantled" a network of tunnels used by Hezbollah's elite Radwan forces in the heart of a town near the border with Israel, releasing video footage showing multiple explosions rocking a group of buildings.
Lebanese officials said it was the small town of Maibib, which houses a religious temple.
The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plashart, said civilian suffering had reached an unprecedented level following the Israeli attack on Nabati.
France has banned Israeli companies from participating in the upcoming naval arms fair. Israel's defense minister called the decision "disgraceful"
Israel is now fighting Iran's allies, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and in the capital Beirut, and Palestinian militants from Hamas in Gaza. It is also preparing to retaliate for an Iranian missile attack on October 1, following a similar major operation in April.
The probability of an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities remains low, but any potential damage would be "quickly compensated," said Behruz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the state atomic energy agency, according to Iran's semi-official Nournews media.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Tuesday that the US had expressed its concerns to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the recent attacks on Beirut.
Israeli operations have resulted in a large number of civilian casualties, prompting Western allies, including France, to call for an immediate end to hostilities.
France has banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming naval arms fair, the latest incident to highlight the increasingly strained relationship between the two allies.
Israeli Defense Minister Galant called the decision "shameful" and accused Paris of carrying out a hostile policy towards the Jewish people, Reuters reported.
Israeli operations in Lebanon over the past year have killed at least 2.350 people, according to the health ministry, and displaced more than 1,2 million people. The UN says a quarter of the country is under evacuation orders. Reuters says the death toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but includes hundreds of women and children.
About 50 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, died in the same period, according to Israeli data.
Yesterday's attack on Beirut was the first since October 10, when two strikes near the city center killed 22 people and brought down entire buildings in a densely populated neighborhood.
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