The number of dead and 52 injured from Israeli strikes today on buildings in the municipality of Nabatiya, in southern Lebanon, has risen to 16, according to the latest report from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

The city’s mayor, councilors, doctors and a rescue worker were among the dead, officials said.

Following these strikes by the Israeli army, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon called for “civilians and infrastructure to be protected”.

The governor of Nabataiyah district, Howaida Turk, spoke of “carnage” at the town hall where the crisis management committee was meeting as “a zone of fire” fell on the city.

Ahmad Kahil, mayor of the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiya, was among the victims of the Israeli attack on the city’s municipal building on Wednesday morning, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Several municipal employees, including the municipality’s media officer Mohammad Salim Bitar, were also killed, NNA reported.

Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement earlier that at least five people were killed after an Israeli airstrike hit the municipality building.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in the city to break up what they claim were “underground infrastructure used by Hezbollah’s Radwan forces.”