Israel’s military carried out airstrikes early Wednesday in Hezbollah-dominated areas in southern Lebanon and outside Beirut. They were Israel’s first attacks in days near the Lebanese capital and came a day after the US said that it had expressed concerns about the scale of Israel’s weekslong bombardment there.

The strikes in southern Lebanon hit municipal buildings in Nabatieh and killed at least 16 people, including the city’s mayor, and injured more than 50, Lebanese officials said. The attacks targeted a meeting of the municipal council, according to Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati. The Israeli military said that it had struck Hezbollah targets in and around Nabatieh, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon, many of whose residents have fled after recent Israeli evacuation warnings.

At least three more people were killed and 50 others wounded in an overnight strike on Qana, also in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said on Wednesday. The Israeli military said it had targeted a local Hezbollah commander there, along with several other militants.

Two strikes in Beirut’s southern outskirts, in the neighbourhood of Haret Hreik, were aimed at underground weapon storage facilities used by Hezbollah, Israel’s military said in a statement. They came about an hour after a spokesman for the Israeli military had issued a warning in Arabic to residents to move at least 500 metres away from a building in the area.

Haret Hreik, which was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, is part of a collection of neighbourhoods south of Beirut known as the Dahiya, where the armed group holds sway. Since last month, Israel has repeatedly struck in and around the area as part of an offensive to kill leaders of Hezbollah and to take out its arsenal.

On Tuesday, a state department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told reporters that the US had conveyed to Israel concerns about the civilian toll of its weekslong bombing campaign in Beirut, during which many of the strikes have been in the Dahiya.

France ban

France has banned Israeli firms from exhibiting in a naval arms trade show next month, the organisers said on Wednesday, the latest incident in a row fueled by the Emmanuel Macron government’s unease over Israel’s conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

The ban came after French efforts to secure a truce in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon foundered and as Israel carries out more airstrikes on targets in the country.

New York Times News Service and Reuters