Israel rebuked globally after attacking UN peacekeepers in Lebanon

By AFP/Sarah Benhaida with Jay Deshmukh

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warned Saturday against a "catastrophic" regional conflict as Israeli forces battled Hezbollah and Hamas on two fronts, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

Israel has faced a fierce diplomatic backlash over the injuries suffered by five Blue Helmets serving in south Lebanon.

Lebanon's health ministry said Saturday that Israeli air strikes on three sites had killed at least 15 people, raising an earlier toll.

Israel had earlier told residents of south Lebanon not to return home, as its troops fought Hezbollah in a war that has killed more than 1,200 people since September 23.

More than a million people have been forced to flee their homes, Lebanese authorities say.

Hezbollah said it had fired missiles into northern Israel, where air raid sirens sounded and the military said it had intercepted a projectile.

The Iran-backed fighters have stepped up their attacks on targets in and around Israel's main northern city of Haifa.

Israel's military said Hezbollah fired about 320 projectiles into Israel over the weekend of Yom Kippur, which ended at nightfall.

It also said roughly 280 "terror targets" were attacked in Lebanon and Gaza over the same period.

For the third time, it declared a "closed military area" along the Lebanese border in northern Israel.

Such measures since late September have preceded ground operations inside Lebanon.

Peacekeepers to stay

In an interview with AFP, Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, said he feared an Israeli escalation against Hezbollah could soon spiral "into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone".

There is "no military solution", Tenenti said.

The UN mission said five peacekeepers had been wounded during fighting in south Lebanon in two days, and Tenenti said "a lot of damage" had been caused to its posts there.

But he added: "There was a unanimous decision to stay because it's important for the UN flag to still fly high in this region, and to be able to report to the Security Council."

Around Israel, markets were closed and public transport halted as observant Jews fasted and prayed on Yom Kippur.

After the holiday, attention is likely to turn again to Israel's promised retaliation against Iran, which launched around 200 missiles at Israel on October 1.

Tehran said the barrage was retaliation for the killing of top militants and an Iranian general.

Israeli forces have been at war in Gaza since Hamas militants on October 7 last year carried out the worst-ever attack on Israel.

Hezbollah, saying it was acting as a "support" front for Hamas, had been exchanging cross-border fire with Israel for almost a year.

But on September 30 Israel began a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon after intensifying air strikes on targets there.

'Deliberately targeted'

On Friday, Israel faced criticism from the United Nations, its Western allies and others over what it said was a "hit" on a UN peacekeeping position in Lebanon.

Two Sri Lankan Blue Helmets were hurt in the second such incident in two days, UNIFIL said Friday.

The latest incident came a day after two Indonesian soldiers were hurt when, according to UNIFIL, tank fire hit a watchtower.

Israel's military said soldiers had responded to "an immediate threat" around 50 metres (165 feet) from the UNIFIL base in Naqura, and pledged to carry out a "thorough review".

Sean Clancy, the Irish military's chief of staff, said he did not believe Israel's explanation of Friday's incident.

"So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act," said Clancy, whose country has troops in UNIFIL.

Guterres condemned the firing as "intolerable" and "a violation of international humanitarian law," while the British government said it was "appalled" by reports of the wounded.

US President Joe Biden said Friday he was "absolutely" asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers, while the French, Spanish and Italian leaders issued a joint statement expressing "outrage."

French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his call for an end to exports of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, while saying the UN peacekeepers had been "deliberately targeted."

On Saturday, 40 contributing nations said in a joint statement that they "strongly condemn recent attacks" on the peacekeepers.

Efforts to negotiate an end to the Lebanon war have so far failed.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a "full and immediate ceasefire".

But Jordan called for tougher measures and an end to "impunity" for Israel. It said the UN's Chapter 7 must be enacted "to force" Israeli compliance with international law.

Macron repeated his call for a ceasefire and said Hezbollah must "immediately stop" attacking Israel.

In a show of support for Hezbollah -- which Iran arms and finances -- the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, on Saturday visited the site of an earlier deadly Israeli strike.

A source close to Hezbollah said the strike had targeted the group's security chief Wafiq Safa, something neither Hezbollah nor Israel has confirmed.

Ghalibaf's visit, a signal of Tehran's defiance, comes after Israel vowed to respond to Iran's second-ever direct attack, after an earlier missile barrage in April.

Gaza deaths

Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The number includes hostages killed in captivity.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 42,175 people, a majority women and children, have been killed since Israel's military campaign began there.

Israeli operations in Gaza continue, with the army besieging an area around Jabalia in the north, causing more suffering for hundreds of thousands of people trapped there, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted an evacuation warning on X for an area near Jabalia, saying it was "considered a dangerous combat zone".

"There is no safe place, neither in the south nor in the north -- everyone is at risk of death," Sami Asliya, 27, told AFP.

On Friday, Gaza's civil defence agency reported 30 people killed in Israeli strikes in the area, including on schools sheltering displaced people.

An AFP journalist in Gaza reported heavy shelling, explosions and gunfire Saturday further south in Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood.