Israeli strike wounds two UN peacekeepers in Lebanon

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By Amina Ismail and Timour Azhari

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Two U.N. peacekeepers were wounded by an Israeli strike near their watchtower in south Lebanon on Friday, Israel’s military said, while blasts shook the peacekeepers’ main base in the area for the second time in 48 hours as Israeli forces battled Hezbollah.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Western countries condemned the attacks. The UNIFIL force called it a “serious development” and said the security of U.N. personnel and property must be guaranteed.

France summoned Israel’s ambassador, and issued a statement with Italy and Spain calling such attacks “unjustifiable”. U.S. President Joe Biden said he was asking Israel not to hit the UNIFIL forces. Russia said it was “outraged” and demanded Israel refrain from “hostile actions” against peacekeepers.

In Gaza, medics told Reuters at least 13 Palestinians were killed late on Friday by Israeli strikes on a home in Jabalia, where Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) says thousands of people are trapped a week after Israel launched an offensive there to stop Hamas militants from regrouping.

The Israeli military said air raid sirens sounded in central Israel and two drones were detected from Lebanon late on Friday. It said it successfully intercepted one drone but one building in Herzliya sustained some damage. No casualties were reported.

The Israeli military said two peacekeepers had been hurt by Israeli fire as it was engaging Hezbollah and expressed “deep concern.” It said they had been warned hours earlier to take shelter. The United Nations said both were from Sri Lanka.

A Hezbollah statement late on Friday said the Israeli military had failed in its attempts to advance into southern Lebanon and was facing significant resistance that had resulted in heavy Israeli losses.

It said the Israeli army was using settler homes in several northern Israeli towns as gathering points and that Hezbollah considered them targets. It warned settlers against remaining there.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas, at the start of the Gaza war.

It has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah’s top leaders, and sending ground troops across the border. Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.

An Israeli strike overnight in the heart of Beirut killed 22 people and wounded 139, caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said. Lebanon’s army said two soldiers were killed and three wounded when Israeli forces attacked a military post in Kafra in the south.

The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation, awaiting Israel’s response to an Iranian missile barrage on Oct. 1.

In a sign of a spreading conflict, a Syrian security source said that the U.S.-led coalition in Syria had targeted Iran-linked sites near northeastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor airport on Friday night.

Israel says its campaign in Lebanon aims to make northern Israel safe for tens of thousands of people forced to leave over the last year by Hezbollah rocket fire.

Its expanded operation has displaced more than 1.2 million people, according Lebanon’s government, which says more than 2,100 people have been killed and 10,000 wounded in over a year of fighting. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but includes scores of women and children.

Hezbollah rockets have killed at least 54 people in Israel, more than half civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

ISRAEL SEEKS SAFE RETURN OF RESIDENTS

The Israeli military’s chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said on Friday Israel it would not stop its campaign “until we ensure that we can safely return the residents not just now, but with a future outlook”.

The head of Hezbollah’s media office, Mohammad Afif said the group’s priority is defeating Israel militarily but it is open to diplomatic efforts to stop “the aggression”.

The watchtower that came under Israeli fire is at UNIFIL’s main base in Naqoura. UNIFIL said an Israeli bulldozer had also knocked over barriers at U.N. positions near the Blue Line denoting the frontier between Lebanon and Israel, while tanks had moved into the vicinity.

UNIFIL has more than 10,000 personnel, with Italy, France, Malaysia, Indonesia and India among the biggest contributors.

The chief of staff of Ireland’s Defence Forces, which has around 340 personnel serving in UNIFIL, said Friday’s attack on the observation tower was deliberate.

“An observer tower with a round from a tank directly into it, which is a very small target, has to be very deliberate, and it’s a direct fire. So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act. It’s a direct act,” Lieutenant General Sean Clancy told RTE television.

Two Indonesian U.N. peacekeepers were hurt on Thursday after falling from a watchtower following Israeli tank fire, after which Israel said its troops had opened fire nearby, and that Hezbollah fighters operated from areas near UNIFIL posts.

FAMILY OF EIGHT KILLED BY ISRAELI STRIKE

Security sources said the target of Thursday night’s airstrike in Beirut was senior Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa, who survived. A Hezbollah lawmaker said no senior Hezbollah officials had been present.

At a Beirut hospital that received dozens of wounded, a man sat in a chair in a corridor, his knees wrapped in white bandages, and his face and body covered with wounds.

The dead included a family of eight who had evacuated from the south, three of them children, a security source said.

“The situation … I don’t even know how to describe it,” said Wael al-Jaroush, head of the Makassed hospital’s medical department. “We received three martyrs … in pieces.”

In northern Israel, a Thai worker was killed as a result of fallen munition, likely fired from Lebanon, Israel’s military said. It also said the Israeli airforce had killed a Hezbollah commander with anti-tank missiles in northern Israel’s Ramot Naftali. Hezbollah issued no immediate comment on that claim.

In Iran, the Revolutionary Guards said the body of its deputy commander Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan – killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut on Sept. 27 along with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah – had been found. A Guards statement said Nilforoushan’s body would be moved to Iran for burial.

(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam, Amina Ismail, Timour Azhari, Tom Perry and Abdelhadi Ramahi in Beirut, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Orhan Qereman in Qamishli, Clauda Tanios, Tala Ramadan and Ahmed Elimam in Dubai and Krishn Kaushi in New Delhi; Writing by Tom Perry, Lincoln Feast, Sharon Singleton, Frances Kerry, Daniel Wallis and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Ros Russell and Deepa Babington)