Lebanon: Mayor and 15 others killed in Israeli strike

Israel also launched at least one air strike against Beirut on Wednesday.

The strike, which hit the southern suburb of Dahieh, was the first on the Lebanese capital in five days. It came after a reported intervention by the US in which it urged restraint over the bombing of the capital.

Residents of Dahieh had begun to return to the area over the past few days, taking advantage of the apparent pause in bombing to check on their homes and retrieve clothes and other possessions.

Several told the BBC on Wednesday that the area resembled a ghost town, with rubble and debris from buildings littering the streets.

The strike on Dahieh came just hours after a US state department spokesman Matthew Miller publicly expressed concern over the “scope and nature” of Israel’s bombing of Beirut.

Mr Miller said the state department’s concerns had been “made clear to the government of Israel”.

An Israeli military spokesman said that prior to striking Beirut, “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including advancing warnings to the population in the area”.

Israel has faced criticism this week over its warnings, which Amnesty International has called “inadequate” and “misleading”.

The human rights charity said the warnings did “not absolve Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law”.

Israel has expanded its air campaign in recent days, launching an unexpected strike in the far north of the country on Monday.

The strike, which destroyed a large residential home that had been rented by a displaced family in the Christian village of Aitou, killed 23 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Twelve of the dead were women and two children, the ministry said.

The UN human rights office called for an investigation into the Aitou strike, saying it raised “real concerns” with respect to international humanitarian law.