Israel strikes Beirut after rejecting truce

BEIRUT, Oct 16 (AFP): The Israeli military launched strikes in southern Beirut on Wednesday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, saying it would leave Hezbollah forces near his country's border.
An AFP journalist saw black smoke rising from Beirut's Haret Hreik area after two strikes, which followed an Israeli military warning for residents to evacuate.
One of the strikes targeted weapons "stockpiled by Hezbollah in an underground storage facility", the military said.
Netanyahu's refusal to halt the offensive came as the United States ramped up pressure on Israel, criticising the bombing of Beirut and urging more aid access for Gazans.
In a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Netanyahu said he was "opposed to a unilateral ceasefire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon, and which will only return it to the way it was", according to his office.
Israel insists it needs a buffer zone along its northern border, free of Hezbollah fighters.
"Netanyahu clarified that Israel would not agree to any arrangement that does not provide this (a buffer zone) and which does not stop Hezbollah from rearming and regrouping," the statement said.
Hezbollah's deputy leader, Naim Qassem, said the only solution was a ceasefire while threatening to expand its missile strikes across Israel.
"Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place" in Israel, he said.
Early Wednesday Israel's military said about 50 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at the country's north, without any reports of casualties.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said it launched several salvos of rockets on northern Israel and army positions.
The Israeli military said it had "eliminated dozens of terrorists during exchanges of fire and aerial strikes" in Lebanon.
Six dead in Israeli strikes on
municipal council meeting
Lebanon said six people were killed in Israeli strikes Wednesday on municipality buildings in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, where Hezbollah and ally Amal hold sway, with an official saying the mayor was among the dead.
The attacks were among 11 strikes on Nabatiyeh city and its surroundings that created "a kind of belt of fire" in the area, the local official had earlier told AFP.
They prompted a UN call for the protection of civilians, while Lebanon's prime minister said the strikes targeted a meeting of the city's municipal council.
"The Israeli enemy raid... on two buildings, that of the Nabatiyeh municipality and the union of municipalities, killed six people and injured 43," the health ministry said.
It added that the death toll was preliminary and that rescuers were still searching for survivors under the rubble.
"The mayor of Nabatiyeh, among others... was martyred. It's a massacre," Nabatiyeh governor Howaida Turk told AFP.
She added that the mayor, Ahmad Kahil, had been in the municipality building with his team during a daily crisis management meeting.
The Israeli army said its forces hit "dozens of Hezbollah terrorist targets in the Nabatiyeh area and dismantled underground infrastructure used by Hezbollah's Radwan Forces in southern Lebanon".
Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers said the strikes destroyed the municipality building and a nearby medical facility, with two doctors among the dead.
The Lebanese civil defence said the strikes killed one of its staff members who was at the municipality building with colleagues.
Lebanon's official National News Agency said the Nabatiyeh strikes also hit a library and shopping centre.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the strikes, which he said "deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city's services and relief situation".
The UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said "civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times."
AFP footage showed several plumes of grey smoke rising from Nabatiyeh, following the consecutive strikes.