Sixteen people, including the mayor of the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, were killed on Wednesday when Israeli strikes hit the municipal building there, Lebanon's state news agency NNA reported.
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 52 other people were wounded.
Earlier in the day, NNA had reported that Mayor Ahmed Kahil was killed along with several members of the municipal council while they were holding a meeting.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the strikes on Nabatiyeh, saying that "the world is deliberately silent on the crimes of the occupation," which he said encourages Israel to continue what he called its "aggression and crimes."
"If all the world's countries are incapable of deterring a blatant aggression against the Lebanese people, is it useful to resort to the [United Nations] Security Council to demand a ceasefire?" Mikati said.
UNIFIL says Israel attacked it again
The United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that an Israeli tank fired on one of its watchtowers in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
"This morning, peacekeepers at a position near Kafr Kila observed an IDF [Israel Defense Forces] Merkava tank firing at their watchtower. Two cameras were destroyed, and the tower was damaged," UNIFIL said in a statement.
"Yet again we see direct and apparently deliberate fire on a UNIFIL position," it added.
UNIFIL called on the Israeli army and all actors to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and "to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times."
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon have come under fire several times in recent days, with at least four soldiers injured. Israeli tanks also forcibly broke through the main gate of a UN base in southern Lebanon on Sunday. Israel accuses the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia of using areas near UNIFIL bases for its own purposes.
UNIFIL has monitored the border region between Israel and Lebanon since 1978. Over 10,000 troops from more than 50 countries including Germany have been deployed to the mission.
UN condems Israel's actions
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Israeli attacks in Lebanon are having increasingly "serious impacts on civilian infrastructure and the civilian population."
Health facilities, mosques, historic markets, residential complexes and now government buildings were reduced to rubble, the UN agency said.
It added that displaced families continue to feel at risk, even if they have already fled to supposedly safe areas.
OCHA called the attack on Nabatiyeh a "devastating attack" that not only claimed civilian lives but members of a relief team with whom the UN and humanitarian partners have been working with for more than a year.
In total, 2,367 people have been killed and 11,088 others injured in Lebanon since the fighting broke out between the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia and the Israeli military just over a year ago, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The Health Ministry does not differentiate between Hezbollah members and civilians in its figures.
Israel says it struck an underground storage facility
The Israeli military on Wednesday said it had struck an underground storage facility in the southern suburbs of Beirut which it said contained weapons belonging to the Hezbollah militia.
The army said that the strike on Dahiyeh was carried out after "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including advanced warning to the population in the area."
It added that it had "precise intelligence" that "strategic weapons" belonging to Hezbollah had been stockpiled in the facility.
Last week, human rights watchdog Amnesty International criticized evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of Dahiyeh and other areas in Lebanon as "inadequate" and in some cases "misleading."
Lebanese stocks of medication at risk
The Lebanese Pharmacists' Association warned on Wednesday that Lebanon might face a shortage of medicines shortly due to the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
"Our remaining stock of medication is at risk," association chairman Joe Salloum told dpa.
"The problem is that due to the war, we have only one airline operating out of Beirut International Airport," Salloum said.
Many pharmacies are also currently closed due to the widespread attacks across the country, he added.
"We are trying to get the stocks from the bombed or destroyed pharmacies in a safe way," said Salloum.
Four injured in missile attack by Lebanon
Meanwhile, four people were slightly injured in a missile attack by Lebanon on the Israeli city of Karmiel. They were hit by missile shrapnel and taken to hospital, the Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom said.
The Times of Israel reported that a residential building in a town near Karmiel, which is mainly inhabited by Israeli Arabs, had been directly hit. Photos and videos of a destroyed house could be seen on social media.
The Israeli army said the area around the city and other places in Galilee in northern Israel had been attacked by about 30 missiles from Lebanon. Most of the missiles had been intercepted, but some had also hit their targets. Overnight, 50 missiles had already been fired from Lebanon at an area further east near the city of Safed.
Hezbollah claims responsibility, urges ceasefire
The Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon said that it had fired missiles at Karmiel. The militia, which is supported by Iran and allied with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has been firing at Israel almost daily since the beginning of the Gaza war a year ago.
It says it will continue to do so until there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Israel wants to push Hezbollah back from the border with airstrikes and a ground offensive, so that some 60,000 evacuated Israelis can return to their villages in northern Israel.
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