Beirut, Oct 16 (EFE).- At least five people were killed on Wednesday in an intense Israeli airstrike on the town of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, a region heavily targeted by relentless air campaign since late September, official sources said.
“The enemy’s attack on Nabatiyeh City Hall and the Union of Municipalities buildings initially resulted in the martyrdom of five people,” Lebanon’s health ministry said in a brief statement, adding that rescue operation to remove debris was ongoing.
The Lebanese National News Agency (ANN) reported that Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike on Nabatiyeh, hitting more than 10 sites across the town neighborhoods.
Images circulating on the social media showed large columns of smoke rising from Nabatiyeh, which has been one of the most heavily bombed areas in Lebanon since the escalation of violence in late September.
Several ambulance teams were dispatched to the affected areas, as reports surfaced that Nabatiyeh had endured another wave of bombings just days ago, which destroyed the town’s historic marketplace.
The latest airstrikes come only hours after the Israeli military carried out at least three bombings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahye, another area that has suffered heavily in the past month.
According to ANN, one of the airstrikes in Dahye hit a building near a school, while the Israeli army claimed in a statement that its fighter jets targeted an “underground weapons depot” belonging to the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
On Tuesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government had secured “some kind of guarantee” from the United States to halt the attacks on Dahye and Beirut.
The Lebanese capital has been bombed three times since the current conflict erupted just over a year ago.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously said Israel would continue to “mercilessly attack Hezbollah throughout Lebanon, including in Beirut,” following the deaths of four Israeli soldiers in a drone strike on the Golani military base near Haifa.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have claimed more than 2,300 lives since hostilities with Hezbollah began on Oct. 8, 2023, and have displaced over 1.2 million people, according to official figures. EFE
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