Israeli strikes kill 15 in Qana, Lebanese town with a history of civilian deaths

Associated Press Beirut: Israeli strikes have killed at least 15 people in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, which has long been associated with civilian deaths after Israeli strikes during previous conflicts with Hezbollah. Israel meanwhile struck Beirut's southern suburbs early Wednesday for the first time in nearly a week. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes in Qana late Tuesday. Lebanon's Civil Defence said 15 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of a building and that rescue efforts were still underway. In 1996, Israeli artillery shelling on a United Nations compound housing hundreds of displaced people in Qana killed at least 100 civilians and wounded scores more, including four UN peacekeepers. During the 2006 war, an Israeli strike on a residential building killed nearly three dozen people, a third of them children. Israel said at the time that it struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher behind the building. Israel also carried out a wave of airstrikes on the southern city of Nabatiyeh, targeting what it said were Hezbollah militant sites embedded among civilians. Lebanon's Health Ministry said at least five people were killed. Huwaida Turk, the governor of Nabatiyeh province, told The Associated Press that Mayor Ahmad Kahil was among those killed.

Israel resumes strikes on Beirut after 6-day pause; The strikes on southern Beirut were the first in six days, and came after Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the United States had given him assurances that Israel would curb its strikes on the capital. There was no immediate word on casualties. Hezbollah has a strong presence in southern Beirut, known as the Dahiyeh, which is also a residential and commercial area home to large numbers of civilians and people unaf filiated with the militant group. The Israeli military said it targeted an arms warehouse under a resident ial bui lding, without providing evidence. It posted an evacuation warning on the X platform ahead of the strike, saying it was targeting a building in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood. An Associated Press photographer saw three airstrikes in the area, the first coming less than an hour after the notice. Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on October 8 in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, following the surprise Hamas attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. A year of low-level fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border escalated into allout war last month, and has displaced some 1.2 million people in Lebanon.