Israel has launched airstrikes on Beirut for the first time in five days, while a city mayor has been been killed during a volley of intense strikes on southern Lebanon – in what the country’s prime minister has condemned as "intentionally” targeting a municipal council meeting.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed the municipal headquarters in a major town in south Lebanon on Wednesday, killing 16 people including the mayor, in the biggest attack on an official Lebanese state building since the Israeli air campaign began.

The mayor of Nabatieh was killed, according to Lebanese state media, in an air raid that Israel said was targeting Hezbollah.