Lebanon says 16 dead in Israeli strikes on Nabatiyeh municipality

Lebanon's health ministry on Wednesday said 16 people were killed and 52 others wounded in Israeli strikes on municipal buildings in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, revising upwards an earlier toll.

"Sixteen were martyred and 52 others wounded in the final toll of the Israeli enemy raid on the buildings of the Nabatiyeh municipality and the union of municipalities," the ministry said in a statement, after earlier reporting six killed

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The attacks were among 11 strikes on Nabatiyeh city and its surroundings that created "a kind of belt of fire" in the area, the local official had earlier told AFP.

"The mayor of Nabatiyeh, among others... was martyred. It's a massacre," Nabatiyeh governor Howaida Turk told AFP.

She added that the mayor, Ahmad Kahil, had been in the municipality building with his team during a daily crisis management meeting.

Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers also told AFP the mayor was among several people killed in the strike on the municipality building.

They also said the strikes destroyed the municipality building and a nearby medical facility, with two doctors among the dead.

AFP footage showed several plumes of grey smoke rising from Nabatiyeh, following the consecutive strikes.

On Saturday, Israeli strikes razed the city's main marketplace and wounded eight people there, the health ministry had said.

At least 1,356 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched an intense air campaign on September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

The escalation followed nearly a year of cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israeli troops over the Gaza war.

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