Israeli Airstrike Kills Two Lebanese Soldiers, Injures Two UN Peacekeepers Foreign Defense Security News

The Lebanese army has largely remained on the sidelines of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to prevent it from spiraling out of control. After Israeli troops launched their ground offensive in southern Lebanon, Lebanese troops withdrew about 5 kilometers from their border observation post.

But as Israel intensifies its campaign against Hezbollah with heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a wave of ground attacks along the border, Lebanese troops increasingly find themselves in the crossfire. Earlier this month, an Israeli airstrike killed one Lebanese soldier and injured another.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, also finds itself in the middle of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The international forces said the explosion occurred near an observation tower at their headquarters in the southern Lebanese city of Naqora. One of the injured peacekeepers was hospitalized in the nearby city of Tire, and the other was treated at the scene, he said.

Unifil did not specify the cause of the explosion. But the Israeli military said troops operating in southern Lebanon detected a threat and responded with fire, eventually hitting a UNIFIL post and wounding two peacekeepers. The army said its initial analysis showed the target was located about 50 meters from the UNIFIL position.

UN forces said they sent reinforcements to the area following another incident on Friday in which an Israeli army bulldozer struck the perimeter of a separate UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon as Israeli tanks approached.

The force said that on Thursday, an Israeli tank fired directly at an observation tower at UNIFIL headquarters, wounding two Indonesian peacekeepers. He also said Israeli troops attacked a bunker at a base where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communications system.

The incidents have drawn sharp criticism from European countries that contribute troops to the UN force, including Italy and France. Israel has warned peacekeepers to leave positions near where it says Hezbollah militants fired rockets into northern Israel in a cross-border attack last year.

In central Beirut, rescue teams sifted through the rubble of a collapsed building on Friday, hours after two Israeli attacks in the Lebanese capital killed at least 22 people and injured dozens.

The airstrikes in central Beirut were the deadliest in more than a year of war, hitting two residential buildings in the neighborhood that were filled with displaced people fleeing Israeli bombings in other parts of the country.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television and Israeli media said the attack was aimed at killing Wafiq Safa, the group's top security official. Al-Manar said Safa was not in any building at the time. The Israeli military did not comment on the report.

Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas within Israel. Although they disrupted the lives of Israelis, most of Hezbollah's dams did not cause casualties. But on Friday morning, an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon killed a Thai man working on a farm in northern Israel.

In Beirut's Burj Abi Haider neighborhood, members of the civil defense and municipal workers removed piles of concrete and twisted metal from a three-story building that was destroyed by Thursday night's strike.

In an adjacent building that was severely damaged, Ahmad al-Khatib was in his in-laws' apartment, where he, his wife, Marwa Hamdan, and their 2-year-old daughter, Ayla, were injured. He had just picked up his wife from work and was performing evening Muslim prayers at home when the explosion happened.

The world suddenly turned upside down and darkness prevailed, the 42-year-old said, tears streaming down his face. He pulled his daughter out of the rubble of a collapsed bedroom wall. Al-Khatib, who works at the post office. He said the force of the explosion threw his wife against a wall and a piece of metal hit her in the head.

I looked into his face and shouted, “Say something!” she said, but he only responded with sounds of pain. His wife is in the ICU of a Beirut hospital. Her daughter suffered minor injuries.

Mohammad Tarhani said he moved in with his brother in a nearby area after fleeing the southern Lebanon neighborhood to escape airstrikes last week. Her children were on the balcony and she was in the living room when the strike happened.

He said we ran to find the children. Where to go now?

Civil defense official Walid Hashash said he did not expect any more bodies under the rubble because no one was missing. He added that they will release the final death toll once the operation is over.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians on October 8, 2023, provoking Israeli airstrikes in retaliation. Israel says its intensified operation since late September aims to push Hezbollah away from the border to allow tens of thousands of its citizens evacuated from the area to return home.

Israeli attacks killed more than 2,100 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters, civilians and medical workers last year, more than two-thirds of them in recent weeks. Hezbollah attacks have killed 29 civilians as well as 39 Israeli soldiers since October 2023 in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, since Israel began its ground offensive on September 30. miles) along the border.

The war threatens to escalate further, with Israel seeking to deal a devastating blow to its long-time rival, Hezbollah. Netanyahu warned the Lebanese this week that unless they take action against Hezbollah, they will suffer the same devastation wrought by Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Israel also promised to retaliate against Iran, a supporter of the Lebanese group, after it fired 180 ballistic missiles at Israel last week. Iran's barrage was in retaliation for an earlier Israeli attack that killed the leader of Hamas in Tehran and senior members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Friday reiterated US support for Israel's increased campaign against Hezbollah. He said Israel has a clear and very legitimate interest in trying to secure the return of thousands of citizens evacuated from their homes near the border since last October due to Hezbollah fire.