Israeli ‘intentionally’ hit relief meeting in attack that killed mayor and five others, says Lebanon PM

An Israeli air strike destroyed on Wednesday the municipal headquarters in Nabatieh, a major town in south Lebanon, killing the mayor and at least five others as they met to co-ordinate aid for those suffering from war.
The attack raised fears that Israel’s expanding air campaign, designed to crush Iran-backed Hizbullah, could increasingly include public officials and buildings, which so far have been spared.
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.”
After Israel first issued an evacuation notice for Nabatieh, a city of tens of thousands of people, on October 3rd, a Reuters reporter called mayor Ahmed Kahil to ask if he would leave. He said he would not.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday it struck dozens of Hizbullah targets in the Nabatieh area and its navy also hit dozens of targets in southern Lebanon.
The United Nations Special Co-ordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said civilian suffering was reaching an unprecedented level after the Israeli strike on Nabatieh.
Israel is now battling Tehran’s allies Hizbullah in south Lebanon and in the capital Beirut and the Palestinian militants Hamas in Gaza. It is also preparing to retaliate for an Iranian missile attack on October 1st, following a similar large-scale operation in April.
On Tuesday, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US had expressed its concerns to Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s administration on the recent attacks on Beirut.
Israeli operations have led to heavy civilian casualties, leading western allies, including France, to call for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Israeli operations in Lebanon have killed at least 2,350 people over the 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 toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but includes hundreds of women and children.
Around 50 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in the same period, according to Israel. Wednesday’s attack on Beirut was the first since October 10th, when two strikes near the city centre killed 22 people and brought down entire buildings in a densely populated neighbourhood.
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The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had targeted an underground Hizbullah weapons stockpile there. Hizbullah has not yet commented.
Mr Mikati appeared to cast doubt on diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire.
“What can deter the enemy (Israel) from its crimes, which have reached the point of targeting peacekeeping forces in the south? And what solution is hoped for in light of this reality?,” he said in a written statement. Since Israel began its ground incursion, Unifil peacekeeping positions have come under fire and two Israeli tanks burst into one of its bases, the UN says. Five peacekeepers have been injured, sparking alarm among European governments. Irish Defence Forces troops are among the personnel that make the Unifil mission.
The EU countries contributing to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon say it is “essential and fundamental” and only the UN can decide whether to end it, Spanish defence minister Margarita Robles said on Wednesday after a video call with 15 of her counterparts.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials called for a humanitarian corridor to three hospitals in northern Gaza that have come close to collapse as Israeli troops have cut off the area during almost two weeks of heavy fighting against Hamas.
Doctors at the Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and the Indonesian hospitals have refused to leave their patients despite evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military at the start of a major push into the Jabilia area of northern Gaza 12 days ago.
“We are calling on the international community, the Red Cross and the World Health Organisation to play their humanitarian role by opening up a corridor towards our healthcare system,” said Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“We are talking about more than 300 medical staff working at Kamal Adwan Hospital, and we can’t provide even a single meal for them to be able to offer medical services safely.”
Jabilia, home to one of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, was cleared early in the war by Israeli troops pushing through northern Gaza but Palestinian militant Hamas fighters have re-established themselves in the area.
Palestinian health officials said the new Israeli offensive has killed around 350 Palestinians in Jabilia and nearby areas. In Gaza City on Wednesday, an Israeli air strike on a house killed 13 people, medics said. In its daily update, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli military strikes had killed 65 Palestinians across the enclave in the past 24 hours.
Israel has denied the evacuation orders are part of a systematic clearance plan, saying they have been issued to ensure people’s safety and separate them from militants.
The Israeli military denies restricting supplies, saying that since October 1st, more than 9,000 tons of humanitarian aid has entered Gaza, some of it reaching northern Gaza, where the United Nations estimates some 400,000 Palestinians remain.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military unit that oversees aid and commercial shipments to Gaza said 50 trucks carrying food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment provided by Jordan were transferred to the northern Gaza Strip.
But Hadeel Obeid, a supervisor nurse at the Indonesian Hospital, where 28 patients were being treated, said Gazans in the north were “starving”.
Israel launched the offensive against Hamas after the militant group’s October 7th attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive so far, according to Gaza’s health authorities. – Reuters