Hezbollah has targeted an Israeli base, and injured UN peacekeepers are drawing criticism. The situation in the Middle East on Saturday morning
The Hezbollah militia in Lebanon said it fired several rockets at an Israeli military base near the coastal city of Haifa. Hezbollah fighters had “targeted the explosives factory there south of Haifa,” the Iran-backed militia said on Saturday. The highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, also known as the Feast of Atonement, has been celebrated in Israel since Friday evening.
Hezbollah had previously called on residents of northern Israel to stay away from army facilities in residential areas. Alarm sirens sounded in several locations in northern Israel early Saturday morning.
After the major attack on Israel by its allied Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah opened a second front against Israel with permanent air strikes. The Israeli army then took massive action against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since September, the Israeli military has concentrated a significant part of its forces on the fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
As people in Israel prepared for the start of the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, in the evening on Friday, air raid sirens sounded again late in the afternoon in several dozen towns in the northwest of the country. The Israeli army reported “around 80 projectiles” fired from Lebanon into its territory. Late in the evening, a siren alarm was triggered in the north of the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv due to drones coming from Lebanon.
Injured UN peacekeepers in Lebanon: Sharp criticism of Israeli attacks
A new incident with injured peacekeepers in Lebanon has sparked sharp international criticism of Israel’s actions in the fight against the Hezbollah militia. Western countries and UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the incidents, while the Israeli army announced a “thorough investigation” on Friday. Meanwhile, the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia called on residents of northern Israel to stay away from army facilities in residential areas. Alarm sirens sounded in several locations in northern Israel early Saturday.
Unifil vehicles in southern Lebanon
© AFP
According to the UN peacekeeping force Unifil, two of its soldiers were injured in two explosions near a watchtower on Friday. The Israeli army said it responded to an “imminent threat” near a Unifil base in southern Lebanon. Two Unifil soldiers were accidentally injured.
The day before, two Unifil soldiers had been injured as a result of a shelling, for which the UN force blamed the Israeli army. The Israeli army said it was “deeply concerned about incidents of this kind.” She said she was conducting “a thorough investigation at the highest command level to determine the details of what happened.”
Regarding the incident on Friday, the army said that, according to preliminary investigation results, its soldiers, in response to the “imminent threat”, struck a Unifil position “approximately 50 meters from the source of the threat”, inadvertently injuring two Unifil members.
The army accused the pro-Iranian Hezbollah of “intentionally” endangering the peacekeepers. According to Unifil, the two peacekeepers injured on Friday come from Sri Lanka.
According to the peacekeeping force, two Indonesian peacekeepers were injured when they fell from an observation tower during the shelling of the Unifil headquarters in Nakura on Thursday. The Israeli army said it had fired shots near the Unifil base, where Hezbollah militia fighters were active. In advance, the UN soldiers in the area were asked to stay in protected places.
US President Joe Biden responded on Friday to a reporter’s question at the White House whether he was calling on Israel to stop the shelling, saying: “Absolutely.” UN Secretary-General Guterres said the shelling was “unacceptable” and a “violation of international humanitarian law”. The British government said it was “horrified” by the reports of the injured.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for an immediate cessation of shelling and “hostilities” at a meeting of the heads of state and government of the EU Mediterranean countries (Med9) in Cyprus. The attacks constituted a “grave violation” of UN Resolution 1701.
The Unifil peacekeeping force has been stationed in Lebanon since 1978 and includes more than 10,000 soldiers and civilians. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, passed after the Lebanon War in 2006, significantly expanded the tasks of the Blue Helmet Force.
The resolution stipulates, among other things, that only Unifil and Lebanese Army troops should be deployed in the border area with Israel. Hezbollah, which triggered the war with an attack on Israel in 2006, remained there regardless.
After the major attack on Israel by its allied Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah opened a second front against Israel with permanent air strikes. The Israeli army then took massive action against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since September, the Israeli military has concentrated a significant part of its forces on the fight against the Iranian-backed militia.
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Hezbollah warns settlers in northern Israel
Hezbollah, meanwhile, called on residents of northern Israel to stay away from army facilities in residential areas. The Israeli army uses “the houses of settlers in some settlements” in northern Israel and maintains military bases in cities such as Haifa and Tiberias, the Lebanese militia said on Friday in Arabic and Hebrew. “We warn settlers to stay close to these military gatherings to protect their lives.”
Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a UN resolution for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. His government would call on the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution “on a complete and immediate ceasefire,” he said.
The Lebanese military said on Friday that one of its positions in southern Lebanon had been hit by Israeli shelling. Two Lebanese soldiers were killed and three others were injured.
Meanwhile, Gaza Civil Defense reported that a total of 30 people were killed in several Israeli strikes in the north of the Palestinian territory on Friday. In addition, at least 110 other people were injured in the attacks on the city of Jabalia and the refugee camp of the same name.
A journalist from the AFP news agency reported heavy artillery shelling, explosions and gunfire on Saturday in the Seitun district of Gaza city.