Six Killed, 43 Injured In Israeli Airstrike On Municipal Building In Lebanon

Beirut:  Six people, including the mayor, were killed, and 43 others wounded on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike targeting the buildings of the Nabatieh Municipality in Lebanon, according to Lebanese medical and military sources.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that an Israeli warplane fired four air-to-ground missiles at the Nabatieh Municipality building and the building of the Union of Municipalities, killing the mayor, Ahmad Kahil, and several municipality members, injuring several others, and destroying the infrastructure, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Civil Defence teams, the Lebanese Red Cross, and the Islamic Health Authority are working to remove the rubble of the two buildings and search for missing persons, the sources said.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying it deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council discussing the city’s service and relief situation.

The new “aggression” conveys the message that “the international community should act immediately instead of remaining silent about Israeli crimes,” Mikati said.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants announced on Wednesday that it had filed a new complaint with the UN Security Council regarding the Israeli attacks on Lebanon during the period October 3-14.

This is part of the periodic complaints submitted by the ministry through the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN headquarters in New York to document the Israeli offensive and pressure the international community and the Security Council to act to stop it.

Since September 23, the Israeli army has been conducting intensive airstrikes on Lebanon in a sharp escalation with Hezbollah.

The death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since the beginning of the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict on October 8, 2023, has reached 2,350, while injuries went up to 10,906, Health Ministry figures showed on Tuesday.

(IANS)