Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes Wednesday killed 16 people in the southern town of Nabatieh, including its mayor, and wounded more than 50.
Lebanese officials denounced the attack on the provincial capital, contending it was proof that Israel's campaign against the Hezbollah armed group was now shifting to target the Lebanese state.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Israel "intentionally targeted a meeting of the municipal council to discuss the city's service and relief situation" to aid people displaced by the Israeli campaign.
But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on a visit to northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, said Israel would not halt its assault on Hezbollah to allow negotiations.
The Israeli military said it attacked dozens of Hezbollah targets in the Nabatieh area.
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said the Israeli attack "follows other incidents in which civilians and civilian infrastructure have been targeted across Lebanon" and that "civilian suffering is reaching unprecedented heights."
"It is time for all concerned actors to immediately cease their fire and open the door to diplomatic solutions capable of realizing the needs of citizens and advancing regional stability," Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement.
Asked by a reporter about the strike, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said, “We target Hezbollah bases.” He said he would look into the specific incident.
Israeli forces also carried out airstrikes Wednesday on Beirut’s southern suburbs, sending plumes of smoke rising from at least two neighborhoods. Late Tuesday, 15 people were killed in the southern town of Qana.
The Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets struck a Hezbollah underground weapons warehouse.
The attacks followed Israel’s latest evacuation order, which warned people to leave areas in Beirut that the Israeli military said were near Hezbollah facilities.
Israel also reported more than 50 projectiles were fired from Lebanon Wednesday, while Hezbollah said it launched missiles at an area in northern Israel.
The latest Israeli strikes in the area of Lebanon’s capital came a day after the United States said it expressed concerns about such attacks to Israeli officials.
"When it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut over the past few weeks, it's something that we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we were opposed to," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
Washington announced new sanctions targeting three individuals and four companies that help Hezbollah evade sanctions and gain access to millions of dollars for their terror operations.
Aid to Gazans
Meanwhile, the United States is demanding that Israel boost its humanitarian aid to famished Palestinians in Gaza within the next month or face the possibility that Washington would cut its military aid supporting Israel's yearlong war against Hamas militants.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told top Israeli officials in a letter Sunday that Washington has "deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory."
Miller said the message was meant to be a private diplomatic communication but confirmed its veracity.
For months, even as Israel's fight against Hamas has raged, the United States has repeatedly pressed Israel to ramp up its humanitarian assistance — food, water, medical supplies, fuel and other goods — to Palestinian civilians. But the humanitarian effort has vacillated, the effort hampered by the theft of goods by the militants, continued fighting near drop-off sites and disputes over entry points into Gaza.
Blinken and Austin, in the letter to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, listed specific steps Israel must take within 30 days to satisfy the U.S., including enabling a minimum of 350 trucks to enter Gaza each day through four crossings into Gaza, opening a fifth entry point, instituting pauses in fighting to allow aid delivery and rescinding evacuation orders to Palestinian civilians when there is no operational need.
The Blinken-Austin letter cited the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.
It also cited Biden's National Security Memorandum issued in February that requires the State Department to report to Congress on whether it finds Israel's assurances credible that its use of U.S. weapons does not violate U.S. or international law.
U.S. officials earlier this year said Israel may have violated international humanitarian law using U.S.-supplied weapons during its military operation in Gaza.
UN Security Council
At the United Nations Security Council, diplomats were given a grim picture of the situation, particularly in the north, where Israel has been stepping up its military activity this month.
“No food aid entered northern Gaza from October 2 to October 15, when a trickle was allowed in, and all essential supplies for survival are running out,” said acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya.
“During the first two weeks of October, just one out of 54 coordinated movements to the north via the Al Rashid checkpoint was facilitated by Israeli authorities, while another four were impeded but eventually accomplished,” she said. “Eighty-five percent of the movements were denied, and the rest were impeded or canceled, due to security or logistical issues.”
Council members condemned the humanitarian situation and Israeli military evacuation orders. Several said it is time for the council to consider all its “tools” to enforce its existing resolutions — diplomatic speak for sanctions.
The Hamas attack on Israel a year ago killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,400 Palestinians, with more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters.
Hamas and Hezbollah have been designated terrorist organizations by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others.
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
