UN mission hit again, as Israeli strikes in Beirut kill 22

In the last 48 hours, peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon have been injured amid Israeli fire in two separate incidents.

Read more here about UNIFIL, the UN force's background, its mandate and why it faces criticism.

The Lebanese army said Friday that two soldiers had been killed and three more injured in an Israeli strike on an army post in southern Lebanon. 

Despite the conflict with Hezbollah and Israel's military presence on a small portion of Lebanese territory, the respective militaries of Lebanon and Israel are nominally not in combat.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has condemned the incident. 

"This persistent Israeli crime against Lebanon did not spare today the brave soldiers who are carrying out their national duty in protecting the land and defending the people," Mikati said in a statement. 

Lebanon's military last week reported the deaths of two soldiers in southern Lebanon, the first fatalities it reported since Israel launched its ground offensive earlier this month.

Reuters news agency on Friday cited an unnamed security source in Lebanon as saying that five military personnel had been killed while on duty in total, as well as another 16 off-duty military members.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported two more injured peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Friday, saying its "Naquora headquarters was affected by explosions for the second time in the last 48 hours." 

"Two peacekeepers were injured after two explosions occurred close to an observation tower," UNIFIL said in a statement. 

It said one of the injured was taken to a nearby hospital, while the other was receiving treatment at the base. 

"These incidents put again UN peacekeepers, who are serving in south Lebanon at the request of the [UN] Security Council under resolution 1701 [first issued in 2006], at very serious risks," UNIFIL said. 

Israel's military, the IDF, meanwhile said two UNIFIL personnel members had been wounded as Israeli forces were responding to a threat. It said it had instructed UNIFIL personnel to go to protected areas and remain there hours before the incident. 

Israel has often urged UNIFIL to vacate various positions in southern Lebanon, but UNIFIL has responded each time by saying it will remain at all its designated posts.

Meanwhile, the IDF also said it was conducting a "thorough review" of a similar incident the previous day at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura "at the highest levels of command to determine the details," saying the peacekeepers had been "inadvertently hurt during combat against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon".

UNIFIL reported Thursday that Israeli tank fire on an observation tower, "directly hitting it," had caused two personnel to fall. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned an attack by Israeli forces on a watchtower that wounded two United Nations peacekeepers.

"We are seeing escalation after escalation, a regionalization of the conflict that is becoming a threat to global peace and security," Guterres told a news conference at the East Asia Summit in Laos.

"We see an enormous tragedy in Lebanon. And we must do everything to avoid an all-out war."

The conflict in the Middle East was a central issue during Friday's summit in Laos, where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was dedicated to using diplomacy to try to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control.

Israel on Friday heavily criticized a UN probe that looked into deteriorating health services and the treatment of Palestinian detainees in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) said Israel had "perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system."

Israel is "committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities," the report added.

Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said the report was "another blatant attempt by the CoI to delegitimize the very existence of the State of Israel and obstruct its right to protect its population while covering up the crimes of terrorist organizations."

"This report shamelessly portrays Israel's operations in terror-infested health facilities in Gaza as a matter of policy against Gaza's health system while entirely dismissing overwhelming evidence that medical facilities in Gaza have been systematically used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad for terrorist activities," the Israeli mission said in a statement.

Israel also dismissed accusations of systematic abuse of Palestinian detainees, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"Israel is fully committed to international legal standards regarding the treatment of detainees. This includes prohibition of excessive use of force and ill-treatment," the mission said, adding that the commission was creating an "alternate reality" and thereby making the conflict worse.

"We call on states to speak out against this prejudiced approach, which only serves to further stain the credibility of the Human Rights Council and the United Nations at large."

The three-person commission, which the UN Human Rights Council established in May 2021 to investigate alleged international law violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories, was publishing its second report since the Hamas terror attacks on October 7, 2023.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday denounced as a "crime" what he said was an attack on the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. 

Mikati also said he had discussed efforts to reach a cease-fire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Meanwhile, Mikati told reporters that the Lebanese Foreign Ministry would ask the UN Security Council to issue a resolution demanding a "full and immediate cease-fire."

He also called for the Lebanese army and peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in southern Lebanon, an indirect condemnation of the Israeli military's presence in the region.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday condemned Israel's attacks against the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

Sanchez also urged the international community to stop selling weapons to Israel.

The UN's peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that an Israeli tank had opened fire on a watchtower at its headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura.

"Let me at this point criticize and condemn the attacks that the Israeli armed forces are carrying out on the United Nations mission in Lebanon," Sanchez said after meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Sanchez said Spain stopped selling weapons to Israel in October 2023 and urged the rest of the world to do the same.

"I think it is urgent given what is happening in the Middle East that the international community stops exporting weapons to the Israeli government," he said.

Some 650 Spanish peacekeepers are deployed in Lebanon.

Spain has been generally critical of Israel's military operations in the region. Earlier this month, Madrid called on Israel to cease conducting ground raids in southern Lebanon.

This year, Spain announced it was recognizing Palestinian statehood, alongside Ireland and Norway, a move Israel has condemned.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday raised concerns regarding the lack of humanitarian aid entering the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

"I have real concern about the inadequacy of the assistance that's getting to them," Blinken told reporters after the East Asia Summit in Laos, adding that Washington has been "very directly engaged with Israel" on the issue.

Meanwhile, Blinken said the United States continues "to engage intensely to prevent broader conflict in the region."

Last week, Iran fired off missiles toward Israel, and earlier the same day, Israel announced it had entered Lebanon.

"We all have a strong interest in trying to help create an environment in which people can go back to their homes, their safety and security, kids can go back to school," Blinken said.

"So Israel has a clear and very legitimate interest in doing that. The people of Lebanon want the same thing. We believe that the best way to get there is through a diplomatic understanding, one that we've been working on for some time and one that we focus on right now."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday morning that the top commander of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad had been killed in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The army said Mohammad Abdullah was "eliminated" on Thursday after Israeli aircraft struck the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem.

According to the IDF, Abdullah was the successor to Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, who was killed in an Israeli strike at the end of August.

Islamic Jihad has yet to comment.

The United Nations’ children’s agency (UNICEF) has announced that humanitarian pauses, starting in the Gaza Strip on Monday, will allow polio vaccinations for 590,000 children under 10.

UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell confirmed the second round of vaccinations in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"Area-specific humanitarian pauses have been agreed. It's critical that these pauses are respected by all parties," Russell said. "Without them, it is impossible to vaccinate the children."

The first round of vaccinations happened over a week in September, during which the Israeli military maintained temporary and localized cease-fire, allowing the vaccination drive for children.

"The success of the first round shows that when agreements are respected, we can get the job done," Russell.

The first polio case in 25 years has been recently reported in Gaza where fighting displaced most of its population.

United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon say they are determined to remain at their posts despite attacks by the Israeli military. 

The UN's peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that an Israeli tank  opened fire on its watchtower at its headquarters in the town of Naqoura on Thursday.

"This is probably one of the most serious events or incidents that we've witnessed in the last 12 months," said Andrea Tenenti, UNIFIL’s spokesman, adding that:

"We are there because the [UN] Security Council has asked us to be there, so we are staying until the situation becomes impossible for us to operate."

Two peacekeepers from Indonesia were injured, while the attack also damaged vehicles and a communications system.

In a statement, UNIFIL also claimed that Israeli troops "deliberately fired at and disabled" cameras monitoring the area.

The mission consists of more than 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 countries deployed between the Litani River in the north and the internationally-recognized border between Lebanon and Israel in the south, known as the Blue Line.

UNIFIL's main task is to assist the Lebanese army in keeping the country's south free of weapons and armed personnel not belonging to the Lebanese state. But the area is effectively controlled by Hezbollah.

Although thousands of people have left the region, many civilians remain caught up in the fighting and Tenenti said the force still had crucial work to do "assisting local NGOs and also UN agencies to bring much-needed food and water to these villages."

The death toll from Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut on Thursday has risen to at least 22, Lebanon's Health Ministry said, with more than one hundred injured.

According to the Associated Press, the airstrikes – the deadliest to hit the Lebanese capital so far – targeted two residential buildings in separate neighborhoods. One of them collapsed after the attack, while the other had its lower floors destroyed.

Hezbollah's Al Manar TV claimed that Wafiq Safa, who heads the group's coordination unit working with Lebanon's security services, was the likely target. It added that Safa was in neither of the buildings.

A security source told Reuters news agency that a family of eight, including three children, who had evacuated from the south, were among the dead.

The Israeli military, which generally targets neighborhoods in the Hezbollah strongholds of southern Beirut, said it was looking into the strikes on the densely populated central parts of the city.

msh,lo,mf/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)