Sawt Falasteen - Israel pounds Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, killing mayor

The latest exchanges in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed increasing calls for a ceasefire.

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

The Lebanese health ministry said six people were killed and 43 injured in the strikes on two municipal buildings, adding that rescuers were searching through the rubble for survivors.

The city's mayor was among the dead, a local official told AFP, adding that the strikes "formed a kind of belt of fire".

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

Rescuers were also searching through rubble for survivors in the southern Lebanese village of Qana, where Israeli strikes killed three people and injured 54 on Tuesday, the Lebanese ministry said.

AFP footage showed mass destruction in the village, where entire buildings had been levelled.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli air strikes hit Hezbollah's main stronghold in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut.

Hezbollah said its fighters were locked in clashes at "point-blank range" near the southern village of Al-Qawzah.

Israel ramped up its bombardment, mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds, in late September and sent ground troops across the Lebanese border on September 30.

The Israel-Hezbollah 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 its ally Hamas, following its October 7 attack that triggered the Gaza war.

With Hamas weakened but not defeated, Israel widened the focus of its military operations to include Lebanon, vowing to fight until tens of thousands of Israelis forced by Hezbollah's fire to flee their homes are able to return.

- Israel striking nuclear sites 'unlikely' -

The region has also braced for Israel's promised retaliation against its arch-foe Iran for launching around 200 missiles at Israel on October 1.

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

US President Joe Biden has warned Israel against striking Iran's nuclear or oil facilities.

A spokesman of Iran's atomic agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Wednesday that an Israeli attack on key Iranian nuclear sites was "very unlikely".

If Israel were to do "such a stupid thing," Iran could "quickly compensate" for any potential damage, he added.

Tehran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate if Israel attacks.

- Pressure on Israel -

But Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that he was "opposed to a unilateral ceasefire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon," according to his office.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant then called Macron a "disgrace" after Israeli delegations were banned from exhibiting hardware at a defence show being held in France next month.

The US government -- Israel's top arms supplier -- has also criticised Israel's air strikes in Lebanon.

"We have made clear that we are opposed to the campaign the way we've seen it conducted over the past weeks" in Beirut, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Israel has also faced criticism over injuries and damage sustained by UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

On Wednesday, 16 European Union defence ministers called "for maximum political and diplomatic pressure on Israel" to prevent further incidents against peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said his country "places great importance on the activities of UNIFIL and has no intention of harming the organisation or its personnel".

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

UNICEF, the UN's agency for children, said Lebanese children were "at growing risk of" health issues "including waterborne diseases like cholera, hepatitis and diarrhoea" because the fighting had damaged or disrupted essential services.

- Famine fears in Gaza -

There has also been a chorus of international condemnation about the humanitarian crisis in hunger-ravaged Gaza.

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

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

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

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after the October 7 attack by Hamas 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.

Nidal al-Arab lost 10 of his family members during Israeli strikes on Jabalia.

"People are trapped. If they don't die of shelling, they will soon die of thirst and hunger because the siege is getting tighter," the 40-year-old told AFP.

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B.Khalifa--SF-PST