Israel said its forces fired at a threat near a UN peacekeeping position on Friday in Lebanon, acknowledging that a “hit” was responsible for wounding two Blue Helmets in an incident that has sparked a fierce diplomatic backlash.
The two Sri Lankan Blue Helmets were hurt at the main base of the UNIFIL force in Naqura, southern Lebanon, the day after two Indonesian soldiers were hurt when, according to the mission, tank fire hit a watchtower.
As Israel faced a chorus of condemnation from United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and Western allies, its army pledged to carry out a “thorough review” while releasing its preliminary findings.
Israeli soldiers had responded with fire to “an immediate threat” around 50 metres (yards) from the UNIFIL post, the military said.
“An initial examination indicates that during the incident, a hit was identified on a UNIFIL post… resulting in the injury of two UNIFIL personnel,” the statement added.
Sean Clancy, the Irish Defence Forces’ chief of staff, said he did not believe Israel’s explanation.
“So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act,” said Clancy, whose country has troops in the UNIFIL mission.
The peacekeepers have found themselves on the frontline of the Israel-Hezbollah war that has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has verified 690,000 internally displaced people in Lebanon, and they have “huge needs,” Othman Belbeisi, IOM’s regional director, told AFP.
UN Secretary-General Antonio 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 injuries.
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.”
The incidents came more than two weeks into Israel’s war with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has seen Israeli warplanes conduct extensive strikes since September 23 on the militants’ strongholds, and ground troops deployed across the border.
– ‘Immediate ceasefire’ –
On the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Israeli and Hezbollah forces clashed along the border, with Israeli air strikes reported in the south and east of Lebanon
Air raid sirens sounded across areas of northwestern Israel after Hezbollah fired up to 80 projectiles, the Israeli military said.
It later reported more sirens, including north of Tel Aviv, after two drones entered from Lebanon. They were “successfully intercepted”, with no casualties reported, but a building was damaged in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, the military said.
From sundown on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, Israeli markets are closed, flights stopped and public transport halted as most Jews fast and pray on the Day of Atonement, Judaism’s holiest day.
Diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza have so far failed, but 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”.
Leaders from nine European countries around the Mediterranean Sea on Friday also called for an end to fighting in Lebanon, as well as Gaza. The leaders met at a summit in Cyprus.
Mikati said that only the Lebanese army and peacekeepers should be deployed in the south of the country — the essence of existing Security Council Resolution 1701 — and “Hezbollah is in agreement on this issue”.
Lebanon’s army said an Israeli strike on one of its positions in south Lebanon killed two of its soldiers on Friday.
Hezbollah is heavily armed and controls large swathes of Lebanon, and successive Lebanese governments have failed to subdue it.
The movement also fought Israeli troops during Israel’s last invasion in 2006.
– Beirut attack –
In Beirut, residents of a central area of the capital targeted by twin Israeli air strikes on Thursday night salvaged their possessions and cleared rubble from the devastated streets.
“There are a lot of families living here,” said Bilal Othman, who explained that many people had sought shelter there from southern Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, which has been pummelled by Israeli raids since last month.
“Do they want to tell us there is no safe place left in this country?” he said.
The Israeli strikes apparently targeted Hezbollah’s security chief Wafiq Safa, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 22 people and injured more than 100.
Safa was close to Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.
The worst-affected areas in the war are home to majority Shiite Muslims, where Hezbollah built its support base.
But Christian villagers near the border have also been trapped in the cross-fire.
“When Israel bombards, it flies over our heads. And when Hezbollah fires back, it also whizzes by above,” Joseph Jarjour told AFP by phone from the border village of Rmeish. “We’ve never liked war.”
– Children in Gaza –
Hezbollah began firing on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s military campaign has wrought devastation on Gaza and, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, killed 42,126 people, mostly civilians.
Late Friday, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported 30 people killed in Israeli strikes on Jabalia, north Gaza.
The co-head of a Japanese atomic bomb survivor group awarded the Nobel Peace Prize said the situation for children in Gaza reminded him of the plight of survivors after World War II.
“It’s like in Japan 80 years ago,” Toshiyuki Mimaki said in Tokyo.
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