Peacekeepers wounded in Israel strike in Lebanon, UN says

By AFP/Nadine Chalak with Cyril Julien

At least five UN peacekeepers were wounded in an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon on Thursday, the United Nations said, in a raid that also killed three civilians.

Israel, which has not commented on the incident in Lebanon's Sidon city, launched a barrage of strikes after Hezbollah said it carried out a missile attack targeting a military base near Israel's main international airport on Wednesday.

Hezbollah and Israel have been at war since late September, when Israel broadened its focus from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip to securing its northern border, even as the Gaza war continues.

As mediation efforts keep stalling, the US State Department said Secretary Antony Blinken would "continue to pursue an end to the war in Gaza" and in Lebanon before handing over to the administration of President-elect Donald Trump in January.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said 12 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced people on Thursday.

"Women and children were torn apart by F-16 jets and missiles weighing a ton," said witness Ibrahim al-Madhoun at the site of the strike in Gaza City.

Hezbollah began low intensity strikes on Israel last year in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which triggered the Gaza war.

The raid in which the UN peacekeepers were wounded struck near an army checkpoint in Sidon, south Lebanon's main city.

The Lebanese army said Israel struck a car at a checkpoint, killing three civilians and wounding three soldiers as well as members of the Malaysian contingent of the UN peacekeeping force, UNIFIL.

"Five peacekeepers were lightly injured," UNIFIL said in a statement, urging all sides to avoid endangering peacekeepers or civilians.

The Malaysian defence ministry gave a toll of six peacekeepers wounded when the strike "caused damage to a bus carrying" them.

Lebanon's foreign ministry accused Israel of repeatedly "targeting UNIFIL forces, Lebanese army personnel and civilians".

'A matter of luck'

Israel launched raids across the southern suburbs of Beirut overnight, with one hitting an area near the airport.

Taxi driver Abu Elie, who was at the airport when the strikes hit, told AFP that "people were carrying their suitcases on their shoulders and running."

Officials told AFP the raid had caused minor damage but the terminal building was safe and flights were running as normal.

In southern Lebanon, near the Israeli border, Hezbollah said its fighters "ambushed" advancing Israeli troops, also announcing a missile attack targeting an army base south of the city of Haifa.

In the lead-up to Tuesday's US presidential election, some in Lebanon had been hopeful that new leadership might bring them a reprieve.

But Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said in a speech broadcast on Wednesday that the vote -- won by Trump -- would have no bearing on the war.

He warned that Hezbollah had tens of thousands of trained fighters ready to fight, and that nowhere in Israel was "off-limits".

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to keep fighting Hamas and Hezbollah until victory, spoke to Trump on Wednesday.

Netanyahu's office said the conversation was "warm and cordial" and that the two "discussed the Iranian threat".

In Lebanon, the strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs were so intense many residents of the city were unable to sleep.

"Death has become a matter of luck. We can either die or survive," said Ramzi Zaiter, a resident of south Beirut.

Since September 23, more than 2,600 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, according to Health Minister Firass Abiad.

'Nothing left'

Iran, which arms and finances Hezbollah, dismissed the impact of the US vote.

"It makes no difference to us who won the US election," President Masoud Pezeshkian was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Iran and the United States have been adversaries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the Western-backed shah, but tensions soared during Trump's first term from 2017 to 2021.

In Gaza, ravaged by 13 months of war since the deadliest attack in Israeli history, people were desperate for a solution.

"We were displaced, killed... there's nothing left for us, we want peace," said Mamduh al-Jadba.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, on a visit to Jerusalem, said Trump's victory could yet provide a "window" for peace because the US president-elect had a "wish to see the end of the Middle East's endless wars".

Hamas's attack on Israel resulted in 1,206 deaths, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,469 people in Gaza, a majority of them women and children, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.