Israel pounds Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon

Israel's latest bombardment of Hezbollah targets caused widespread destruction in southern Lebanon, ahead of US and Israeli strikes in the wider region Thursday.

Israel's assault on Lebanon on Wednesday toppled buildings and killed a city mayor, hours before Israeli strikes were reported in Syria and Gaza.

The United States meanwhile said it hit Yemen with air strikes targeting weapon storage facilities of Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who have repeatedly fired drones at Israel since the Gaza war erupted when its ally Hamas attacked Israel more than a year ago.

Washington has vowed to support Israel, despite growing international criticism over the civilian toll of Israel's fight against Tehran-allied militant groups in Gaza and Lebanon.

A rare Israeli strike Thursday on the Syrian port city of Latakia targeted a weapons depot, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

The Israeli military, which would not comment on the attack, accuses Hezbollah of ferrying weapons to Lebanon through neighbouring Syria.

Israel ramped up its bombardment of Lebanon in late September and by the end of the month sent ground troops across the border.

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

Lebanon's health ministry said 16 people were killed and 52 wounded in strikes on two municipal buildings. At least six people were killed in other strikes, according to officials and reports.

The strikes "formed a kind of belt of fire", a local official told AFP who said the Nabatiyeh mayor was among the dead.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Israel "deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city's services and relief situation".

- Rescuers scramble through rubble -

Rescuers also scrambled through rubble in the southern Lebanese village of Qana, where Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed three people, the Lebanese ministry said.

Israel's military said in a statement it had "eliminated" the Qana area's Hezbollah leader Jalal Mustafa Hariri.

Hezbollah's main stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs was also targeted by Israeli warplanes and further strikes were reported in Lebanon's south and the Bekaa region in the east.

Hezbollah has repeatedly fired volleys of rockets at Israel and on Thursday the group said it destroyed another Israeli tank near the border, after close combat with soldiers staging incursions in the area.

The war has left at least 1,373 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

Iran-backed Hezbollah started low-intensity strikes on Israel in October last year in support of Hamas, following its October 7 attack that triggered the Gaza war.

- International criticism of Israel -

With Hamas weakened, Israel widened its military operations to include Lebanon, vowing to fight until tens of thousands of Israelis forced by Hezbollah's fire to flee their homes could return.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed calls for a unilateral ceasefire on Tuesday, saying it would "not change the security situation".

Israel's government has come under criticism over its strikes in Lebanon, including from the country's top ally the United States.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Washington had told Israel its operations should "not threaten the lives of civilians", UN peacekeepers or the Lebanese military.

Sixteen European Union defence ministers called "for maximum political and diplomatic pressure on Israel" to prevent further incidents against peacekeepers.

In the latest violence, the UNIFIL peacekeeping force accused Israeli forces of "firing at their watchtower" in a "direct and apparently deliberate" manner.

The Israeli military insisted later that it was not targeting UN peacekeepers.

Also on Wednesday, the Lebanese Red Cross said two paramedics were wounded in an Israeli strike on a south Lebanon village while a rescue mission coordinated with UN peacekeepers was underway.

The World Health Organization warned there is a "very high" risk of cholera spreading among displaced people in Lebanon, confirming a case of the potentially deadly infection this week.

- Gaza famine 'real risk' -

Israel has faced international condemnation over the levels of aid reaching hunger-ravaged Gaza.

In a letter sent to the Israeli government on Sunday, Washington warned it could withhold weapons deliveries unless more humanitarian aid was delivered.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Wednesday that there was "a real risk" of famine.

Gaza has "become a kind of wasteland, which I would say is almost unliveable", UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said.

For over a week, Israeli forces have staged sweeping air and ground assaults in northern Gaza and the Jabalia area, claiming that Hamas militants were regrouping there.

Nidal al-Arab, 40, lost 10 family members in Israeli strikes on Jabalia.

"People are trapped. If they don't die of shelling, they will soon die of thirst and hunger," he told AFP.

The head of the civil defence agency in northern Gaza, Ahmed al-Kahlout, said that more than 200,000 people have been "deprived of food aid for the 12th consecutive day, as well as potable water".

Israel's latest strikes on Gaza include a missile killing five people in a house southwest of Gaza City, the territory's civil defence agency said Thursday.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after the Hamas October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures, including hostages killed in captivity.

The Israeli campaign has killed 42,409 people, the majority civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory which the UN considers reliable.

With strikes hitting multiple parts of the Middle East, the region is also braced for Israel's promised retaliation against Iran for launching around 200 missiles at Israel on October 1.

Iran said the attack was retaliation for an Israeli strike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan.

Iran said on Wednesday an Israeli attack on its nuclear sites was "very unlikely" and it could quickly fix any damage.

burs/rsc/sco