The United States and European powers urged Israel on Friday to ensure the safety of UN peacekeepers after four were injured in Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon this week.
US President Joe Biden said he was “absolutely” asking Israel to stop firing at the peacekeepers, after the second attack on the force’s personnel in two days.
In a phone call with his Israeli counterpart, US defence chief Lloyd Austin stressed “the importance of ensuring the safety” of the United Nations force, known as UNIFIL, the Pentagon said.
After weeks of intensifying assaults on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Austin also called on Israel to “pivot from military operations to a diplomatic pathway as soon as feasible.”
Israel came under heavy criticism in Europe, too.
In a joint statement, the leaders of Italy, France and Spain expressed “outrage” at Israel’s “unjustifiable” attacks on peacekeepers and demanded they “immediately come to an end.”
The German Foreign Office called it “unacceptable.”
Separate strikes kill two Lebanese soldiers, hurt UN peacekeepers
Two Lebanese soldiers were killed and two UN peacekeepers injured in apparent Israeli strikes on Friday.
The Lebanese army said Israeli forces had attacked one of its outposts in the village of Kafra in southern Lebanon, killing two soldiers and injuring three others.
Najib Mikati, the caretaker prime minister of Lebanon, condemned the attack, calling it a “crime against Lebanon.”
The Israeli military has yet to comment.
The weak Lebanese military is not a declared enemy of Israel, and Lebanese state forces are seen as powerless against the massive influence wielded by Hezbollah in the south of the country.
Earlier, the UN peacekeeping mission said that its Naqoura headquarters were hit once again by explosions, wounding two more members of the force.
This was the second attack on the facilities of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 48 hours. On Thursday, two soldiers were injured after an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower.
UNIFIL said there were two blasts near an observation post in Naqoura on Friday. The force said one of the two injured peacekeepers was taken to hospital in nearby Tyre.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed its troops had opened fire, saying they were responding to “an immediate threat against them.”
The IDF said an initial investigation found that the UNIFIL post was struck as the soldiers tried to hit a target 50 metres away from the peacekeepers.
The explosions came as several protective walls also collapsed at a UN post near Labbouneh, not far from the Lebanese-Israeli border, after an Israeli military bulldozer hit them and Israeli tanks approached the post.
UNIFIL in the cross-hairs of Israel’s war on Hezbollah in Lebanon
The UN mission monitors the border area between Lebanon and Israel. More than 10,000 UN soldiers from more than 50 countries are involved. Many of the UN troops come from Indonesia, Italy and India.
Israeli troops had fired on the UNIFIL headquarters on Thursday, injuring two soldiers. Israel’s army acknowledged responsibility but said that Hezbollah is operating near the UNIFIL positions.
Hezbollah has been launching missiles at Israel from Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war a year ago. According to the militia, it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel significantly stepped up its military operations against Hezbollah in September, when pagers and walkie-talkies used by the group’s members exploded across Lebanon and Syria. Israeli troops launched a ground offensive in early October and escalated airstrikes, including on Beirut.
Sixty people have been killed and 168 others injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported on Friday evening.
There was no breakdown of casualties among civilians or members of the Iran-allied Hezbollah movement.
Fifty-seven Israeli airstrikes were recorded in various parts of Lebanon over the past 24 hours, mainly in the south near the Israeli border, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and Bekaa in eastern Lebanon.
Building damage after drone attack near Tel Aviv
A building in the Israeli seaside resort of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, was damaged following an attack by two drones from Lebanon, the military said late Friday. No one was injured or killed in the drone attack.
The military said that Israeli air defences detected two hostile drones on their way to Israel, one of which was intercepted.
They did not specify whether the building damage was caused by the other drone or by debris falling from interceptors. Interceptors are the missiles of the air defence systems designed to shoot down enemy projectiles in the air.
The drones were presumably launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Israeli military said that on Friday alone, 230 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel.
(dpa)
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