The strike, in the south of Lebanon, killed at least 16 people, Lebanese officials said. Israel, which also struck near Beirut, said it was targeting Hezbollah militants.

U.S. officials assured Lebanon that Israel would tamp down its strikes on Beirut and its southern suburbs, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said on Tuesday.

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.

The Biden administration said it opposed Israel's recent tactics against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, but the airstrikes keep coming.

The mayor of a major town in south Lebanon was among 16 people killed when an Israeli airstrike destroyed its municipal headquarters in the biggest attack on an official Lebanese state building since the Israeli air campaign began.

Israel also carried out a wave of airstrikes on the southern city of Nabatiyeh, targeting what it said were Hezbollah militant sites embedded among civilians, without providing evidence. The strikes killed at least five people and destroyed a municipality building,