Israel launched a barrage of strikes after Hezbollah said it had carried out a missile attack targeting a military base near Israel’s main international airport [Getty]
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 attack on Lebanon’s Sidon city, launched a barrage of strikes after Hezbollah said it had carried out a missile attack targeting a military base near Israel’s main international airport on Wednesday.
Israel has widened its attacks across Lebanon since late September, when it broadened its focus from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip to attempting to secure 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 after Israel launched its brutal offensive on the enclave on 7 October.
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”.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours have killed at least 53 people and injured 161.
‘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, and that nowhere in Israel was “off-limits”.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who appears to be prolonging the wars to avoid a corruption trial, 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 23 September, more than 2,600 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, according to Health Minister Firass Abiad.
Meanwhile, Israel’s brutal offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip has killed at least 43,469 people – most of whom were women and children.
