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Israeli forces wounded two UN soldiers on Friday, the second consecutive day that peacekeepers have been hit as Israel continues it offensive against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon.
The strikes on the UN force deployed along Israel and Lebanon’s de facto border have drawn international condemnation, and come 10 days after Israeli forces invaded the south of the country and stepped up its military assault.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin urged Israel to ensure the safety of the UN peacekeepers in a call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant. Austin said Israel should “pivot” from its military operations in the country to a diplomatic solution as soon as possible, according to a defence department statement on Friday.
The Lebanese army, which has not been involved in the fighting, separately said two of its soldiers had been killed on Friday by Israeli air strikes that hit a building near their checkpoint.
The Israel Defense Force said a UN post was hit after Israeli troops identified a “threat” 50 metres from the peacekeepers’ position. “The IDF is continuing to examine the circumstances of the incident,” it said. Two UN peacekeepers had also been wounded by Israeli fire on Thursday.
The IDF did not immediately comment on the deaths of the Lebanese soldiers.
The attacks in the south came a day after Israeli air strikes killed at least 22 people in the heart of Beirut, stoking fears that Israel’s pursuit of Hizbollah was extending deeper into the Lebanese capital.
The attack on Thursday evening struck more than 5km from the southern suburbs that have been a focus of Israel’s intensifying offensive against the Lebanon-based militant movement. It was the second time that Israeli forces have hit central Beirut in less than two weeks.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati described the strike as “totally unacceptable” as he renewed his calls for a ceasefire. At least 139 people had been wounded in the attack, he said. Mikati also condemned the deaths of the two Lebanese soldiers in the south.
The strikes on the centre of the capital have exacerbated the sense of fear in the capital as Israeli drones buzzed overhead and warplanes broke the sound barrier. The city is crammed with people fleeing the intense fighting that continues in south Lebanon.
One of the air strikes hit a residential building not far from Lebanon’s national museum in an area filled with small shops and apartment blocks. A family of eight, including three children, had been killed in the bombing, said a relative who declined to be named. Israel did not say who it was targeting.
“We’re all from southern Lebanon, and were displaced here in recent weeks due to Israeli aggression,” the relative told the Financial Times. “I don’t understand why they targeted us. These are just families.”
Lebanese are increasingly fearful that Israel is widening the scope of its targets by striking areas such as those hit on Thursday that are not known for having a Hizbollah presence.
In the dilapidated Burj Abi Haidar neighbourhood, where the other Israeli strike hit, rescue workers were still recovering bodies on Friday, combing through the rubble of what residents said were at least three collapsed buildings.
“A lot of the families around here are poor and have nothing to do with anything,” said Abu Ahmad, who lives in a building near the attack site. His grandfather’s apartment was in one of the collapsed buildings.
The IDF did not issue any warning to residents ahead of Thursday strikes.
Israel says it is fighting the Iran-backed militant group to push its fighters back from the border and to stop it firing rockets into northern Israel, which has displaced 60,000 Israelis.
Hizbollah says its attacks on Israel, which began a year ago, are in support of Hamas, the militant group also linked to Iran that controls Gaza and whose October 7 attack in Israel triggered the war.
After nearly a year of fire across the border, Israel assassinated Hizbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah last month and ramped up air strikes across Lebanon.
Speaking after a situation assessment with Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency in southern Lebanon, the head of Israel’s military, Herzi Halevi, pledged that the fighting would continue “until we ensure that we can safely return the residents”.
He said: “If anyone considers rebuilding these villages again, they will know that it’s not worth constructing terrorist infrastructure because the IDF will neutralise them again.”
The fighting is having a punishing effect on civilians. Lebanese authorities say 1.2mn people have been forced to flee their homes, and more than 2,000 have been killed, mostly in the past two weeks.
On Friday, the UN agency UNRWA said most Palestinian refugees living in camps in southern Lebanon or near Beirut had fled due to the bombardment, drawing parallels with the mass displacement in Gaza.
Additional reporting by Steff Chávez in Washington; Cartography by Steven Bernard
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