Israeli strikes kill 25 in Lebanon, including in a town with a dark history of civilian deaths

By Kareem Chehayeb, Samy Magdy and Mohammad Zaatari

Israeli airstrikes pounded areas across Lebanon, killing at least 25 people, officials said Wednesday, including more than a dozen in a southern town where Israeli bombardments in previous conflicts are seared into local memory.

Elsewhere in the south, a city’s mayor was among the dead in a strike that Lebanese officials said targeted a meeting to coordinate relief efforts.

The Israeli military said they were targeting a Hezbollah commander in the strikes late Tuesday on the southern town of Qana, where 15 people were killed. Associated Press photos and video of the scene showed several flattened buildings and others with their top floors collapsed. Rescue workers carried away the remains of dead people and used a bulldozer to remove rubble, as they searched for more victims.

Israel said the target was Jalal Mustafa Hariri, Hezbollah’s commander in charge of the Qana area.

In 1996, Israeli artillery shelling