Five peacekeepers were injured and three others killed Thursday by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, where Israel is intensifying its strikes against strongholds of Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas in the war-devastated Gaza Strip.
In this context, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken intends to continue working to put an end to hostilities in Gaza and Lebanon, until the new American administration takes office, indicated the State Department, at day after the victory of Donald Trump who spoke on the phone on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since September 23, Israel has been carrying out a campaign of intense strikes in Lebanon, and since September 30 a ground offensive in the south of the country, claiming to want to neutralize Hezbollah to allow the return home of 60,000 displaced inhabitants of northern Israel. by incessant rocket fire since the start of the war in Gaza.
Thursday, an Israeli strike which “aimed at a car” at the entrance to Saida, the large city in southern Lebanon located about forty kilometers from Beirut, “caused the death of three passengers”indicated the Lebanese army.
It happened “when a convoy of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) passes an army checkpoint” which controls the northern entrance to Saida, she said, reporting three Lebanese soldiers injured.
Five peacekeepers were “slightly injured”according to UNIFIL, deployed since 1978 in southern Lebanon to provide a buffer with Israel. Malaysia said the soldiers were Malaysian and that six in total were injured in the blast.
Questioned by AFP, Israel did not immediately comment.
This is not the first time that members of UNIFIL have been victims of fire attributed to Israel since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Rescue workers and Lebanese army soldiers gather at the site of a strike at the northern entrance to the southern city of Saida, November 7, 2024 / Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP
“This attack reflects Israel’s continued targeting of UNIFIL forces, Lebanese army personnel and civilians, which constitutes war crimes and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”castigated the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday.
On its southern border, the Israeli army continues its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, besieged and in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.
” Duty “
“We will continue to work for the end of the war in Gaza, the end of the war in Lebanon, the increase of humanitarian aid (to Gaza), and it is our duty to continue these policies until January 20 at noon, when the president-elect takes office”State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
Northern Israel and southern Lebanon / Jean-Michel CORNU, Cléa PECULIER / AFP
Mr. Blinken reminded Israel on Monday of American demands for an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza, failing which the United States could rebalance its military support to its ally.
Meanwhile, violent Israeli strikes targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, including one that caused “minor damage” in buildings at the capital’s international airport “but not in the terminal”according to an airport official. Air traffic was not disrupted.
The Israeli army also continued its strikes in the south and east of Lebanon, where it said it had killed around sixty fighters in several raids in the thousand-year-old town of Baalbeck and north of the Litani River, located around thirty kilometers from the border.
The pro-Iranian Hezbollah notably indicated on Thursday that it had ambushed Israeli ground forces who were trying to advance towards the border town of Yaroun, in southern Lebanon.
A UNESCO committee will meet on November 18 to discuss a “reinforced temporary protection” Lebanese historical sites threatened by Israeli strikes, the UN organization said on Thursday.
The UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) indicated for its part that “the strikes” and Israeli calls to evacuate “aggravated the humanitarian crisis and left the population in a state of constant fear”.
This photo taken during a media tour organized by the Hezbollah press office shows a man standing amid destruction at the strike site in the southern suburbs of Beirut, November 7, 2024 / – / AFP
According to Ocha, the Israeli army issued evacuation calls for more than 160 Lebanese villages between September 23 and November 4.
More than 2,600 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, the majority of them civilians, according to the Lebanese Minister of Health, Firass Abiad.
“Intolerable”
A Palestinian rescues a woman injured by a strike in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, November 7, 2024 / – / AFP
In the Gaza Strip, Civil Defense reported at least 12 people killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on a school transformed into a shelter for displaced families near the city of Gaza (north).
The Israeli army once again called on residents of several areas of Gaza City to evacuate “dangerous combat zones” after rocket fire towards Israel.
“The situation in Gaza is (…) unbearable, intolerable”lamented to AFPTV Arwa Jalal, a Palestinian from Jabalia (north).
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli soil which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including the hostages killed. or died in captivity.
Children look at the damage caused by a strike in the central Gaza Strip, November 7, 2024 / Eyad BABA / AFP
That day, 251 people were kidnapped. In total, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation in the Gaza Strip left 43,469 dead, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
