UN says Israel fired at peacekeeping post in south Lebanon

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Wednesday said Israeli army forces fired at one of their positions in south Lebanon in a “direct and apparently deliberate” attack that damaged a watchtower.

Peacekeepers in the southern village of Kfar Kila observed an Israeli army tank “firing at their watchtower”, UNIFIL said, adding that “two cameras were destroyed, and the tower was damaged” in what the force called “direct and apparently deliberate fire on a UNIFIL position”.

Israel carried out dozens of strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Wednesday, killing a city mayor, toppling buildings and causing widespread destruction in several southern areas.

The latest exchanges in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict came with Israel under increasing international pressure after UN peacekeepers in Lebanon were injured as well as over the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The Israeli army said its warplanes struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, where the Lebanese group and its ally Amal hold sway.

The Lebanese health ministry said 16 people were killed and 52 injured in the strikes on two municipal buildings, adding that rescuers were searching for survivors.

The city’s mayor was among the dead, a local official told AFP, adding that the strikes “formed a kind of belt of fire”.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying Israel “deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city’s services and relief situation”.

The UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, said the “devastating attack claimed the lives of yet more civilians and local authorities working to provide relief.”

Rescuers were also searching through rubble for survivors in the southern Lebanese village of Qana, where Israeli strikes killed three people and injured 54 on Tuesday, the Lebanese ministry said.