Middle East latest: 18 people killed and 92 wounded in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon says

Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip and Beirut on Thursday left more than 40 people dead, Palestinian and Lebanese authorities said.

The first strike, on a school sheltering the displaced in the Gaza Strip, killed at least 27 people, including a child and seven women, Palestinian officials said. Israel continues to fire at what it says are militant targets across Gaza.

Later Thursday, at least 18 people were killed and 92 wounded in Israeli airstrikes that hit two areas in central Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

In southern Lebanon, meanwhile, the U.N. peacekeeping force said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers, who were hospitalized.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

A year ago, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which began firing rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023.

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Here is the latest:

White House ‘deeply concerned’ about report of Israeli fire on UN peacekeepers

WASHINGTON — The White House says it is “deeply concerned” about a report from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon that Israeli forces opened fire on locations where peacekeepers were working and injured two of them.

“We are deeply concerned about reports that Israeli forces fired on two positions and a tower used by UN peacekeepers in Lebanon,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a statement Thursday. “We reached out immediately to our Israeli counterparts about it, and pressed them for more details.”

The statement said that although Israel is conducting operations in the area to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure that could threaten Israelis, "it is critical that they not threaten UN peacekeepers’ safety and security.”

18 killed in Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut, Lebanon health ministry says

BEIRUT — At least 18 people were killed and 92 wounded in Israeli airstrikes that hit two different areas in central Beirut on Thursday evening, Lebanon’s health ministry said. One of the strikes collapsed an entire building, the ministry said.

An Associated Press photographer who went to the scene of the strikes said the first one, in the area of Ras al-Nabaa, appeared to have hit the lower half of an eight-story apartment building, and that explosions were ongoing inside the building. A large number of ambulances arrived at the scene.

The second strike, in the area of Burj Abi Haidar, collapsed an entire building, which was engulfed in flames, he said.

There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military. In recent weeks, Israel has launched frequent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, but strikes in central Beirut are rare.

Israel recommends that UN peacekeeping force move north to avoid danger

UNITED NATIONS — Israel is recommending that the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon move 5 kilometers (3 miles) north to avoid intensified fighting between its forces and Hezbollah militants.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador, Danny Danon, announced the recommendation in a statement following the wounding of two U.N. peacekeepers from the force known as UNIFIL as a result of Israeli tank fire. UNIFIL also reported that its headquarters and nearby positions “have repeatedly been hit” by Israeli forces.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, asked whether UNIFIL would pull back, said the United Nations is aware of requests for the peacekeepers to move, but they remain in place while their safety and security is continuously assessed.

“Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law” and the 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war, and UNIFIL is following up with the Israel Defense Force, Haq said.

Danon reiterated that “Israel has no desire to be in Lebanon, but it will do what is necessary to force Hezbollah terrorists away from its northern border so that our 70,000 residents, who are refugees in their own country, can safely return to their homes.”

UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border. The force has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from around 50 countries.

“UNIFIL has remained in its positions along the Blue Line without interruption since its establishment,” Nick Birnback, U.N. peacekeeping’s chief of strategic communications, told the AP.

The Blue Line is the U.N.-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel, which have border disputes.

Israeli military releases video showing what it says are weapons in a Lebanese home

TEL AVIV — The Israeli military has released a video showing what it says are piles of weapons stored inside a house in south Lebanon.

The military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, appears in the video, saying it was filed in a “Shia village in Lebanon near the Israeli border.”

He said the weapons show how Hezbollah has turned homes into military “bases” as part of a planned raid on northern Israel and that the army was going house to house to dismantle the militant’s group capabilities.

Hagari has held regular briefings throughout the war, but this is the first time he has spoken from inside Lebanon. Thursday’s video was made for the international media, and Hagari spoke in English.

“I want you to see with your own eyes what we found here today. In this house, a storage of gear waiting for Hezbollah’s Radwan forces with vests, helmets, night vision, mines,” Hagari says. He goes on to show grenades, sniper rifles and explosive rocket-propelled grenades. He did not say which village he was standing in.

Israeli leaders and its military have for years accused Hezbollah of hiding weapons and fighters inside homes and other civilian structures in border villages.

The army has mobilized thousands of troops for what it says is an ongoing ground operation to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure along the border. It says it has killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters.

Earlier this week, the Israeli military said it deployed a fourth division in southern Lebanon and that its operations have expanded to the west. It says the ground invasion is focused on a narrow strip along the border.

130 Israeli reserve soldiers vow to quit serving unless a hostage deal is reached

JERUSALEM — A group of 130 Israeli reserve soldiers said they will stop serving in the military if the government does not immediately sign a deal for the release of hostages remaining in Gaza.

“We cannot continue under these circumstances. The war in Gaza is sentencing our kidnapped brothers and sisters to death,” said the letter, sent Wednesday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The group includes male and female officers and soldiers who enlisted after Hamas attacked Israel Oct. 7. The reservists say that military operations have proven ineffective at rescuing hostages and that a deal is needed to bring them home.

It is unknown how many hostages in Gaza kidnapped by Hamas militants remain alive, but of the 100 believed to still be in Gaza the government has said about 30 are dead. The Israeli military has rescued eight hostages in Gaza, per an AP count, and 105 were released during a brief negotiated cease-fire period in November.

Cease-fire negotiations to bring about their release are at a standstill, with Netanyahu and Hamas negotiators each accusing the other side of negotiating in bad faith. Netanyahu’s critics accuse him of drawing out the war in Gaza for his own political benefit.

“It is now clear that the continuation of the war in Gaza not only delays the return of the hostages but it also endangers their lives,” the reservists’ letter reads. “If the government does not change course immediately and work towards securing a deal,” they write, they will not be able to continue serving.

Draft refusals are rare in Israel but grew more common during the government’s controversial judicial overhaul, when thousands of reservists said they would not show up for duty if the government passed measures curbing the power of the country’s courts.

Safe places needed for those displaced in Lebanon, official says

BEIRUT — The International Organization for Migration’s regional director said Thursday that the “support provided so far is minimal” for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the Israeli aerial and ground offensive in Lebanon, where Israel has said that it is targeting Hezbollah.

There is an “urgent need for help to identify safe places that are able to host people, because from our field visits, most of the places are overwhelmed,” Othman Belbeisi said during a visit to the country.

The Lebanese government has said that some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict, of which Belbeisi said the IOM has been able to verify 690,000, a number that is expected to grow.

While hundreds of thousands have fled across the border into neighboring Syria, Belbeisi said that thus far the organization has not tracked a major surge in the number of people attempting to flee to other countries by sea, possibly because such journeys would involve a “very high risk with the current situation.”

28 killed and 113 wounded in past 24 hours in Lebanon, health ministry reports

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s crisis response unit announced Thursday that 28 people were killed and 113 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,169 killed and 10,212 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The report also recorded 61 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.

Some 1,000 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities and other institutions — are sheltering 186,400 people displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report said. Half of those displaced are housed in facilities concentrated in Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

Among these shelters, 822 have reached full capacity. Overall, the total number of displaced individuals in Lebanon stands at 1.2 million.

Despite a major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after an Israeli strike hit the road last week, crowds have continued to flow across the border seeking relative safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Wednesday, Lebanese General Security recorded 314,481 Syrian citizens, 111,801 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syria, the report said.

The European Union is set to mobilize a three-flight humanitarian airlift operation to deliver supplies for shelters while the Canadian Department for International Development has pledged an additional funding of nearly $11 million to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of civilians in Lebanon, the report added.

Italy's defense minister criticizes Israeli attacks on UN bases in Lebanon

ROME — Italy's defense minister defined the recent Israeli attacks on U.N. peacekeeping bases in southern Lebanon as possible “war crimes” and “very serious violations” of international laws Thursday.

At a press conference in Rome, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stressed that he has asked for a formal explanation from Israeli authorities on the gunfire attacks against United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon bases, which he said “were not an accident nor a mistake.” Crosetto reiterated that what had happened in southern Lebanon was “unacceptable.”

“We won’t accept the justification that Israeli military forces had previously alerted UNIFIL that some of its bases had to be abandoned," Crosetto said.

“I told the Israeli ambassador to Rome that the UN and Italy cannot accept orders from the Israeli government,” he added.

The Italian minister also reiterated that a final decision on whether to stop the UNIFIL mission in southern Lebanon for security reasons is up to the U.N. and not to the single countries contributing to the mission.

Italy has about 1,000 soldiers deployed in the area and none of them were wounded in the attacks. Crosetto said the Italian government aims at keeping its soldiers in place to safeguard “peace spaces” in the troubled region, but added that a “contingency plan” is ready to protect Italian personnel there in case the situation worsens.

EU, Italy and Jordan condemn Israeli strikes on UN base in Lebanon

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has sharply condemned Israeli strikes on the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon as “an inadmissible act, for which there is no justification.”

“Another line has been dangerously crossed in Lebanon,” he wrote on social media platform X.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government formally protested to Israeli authorities. Meloni said she received updates from the two Italian bases located in outposts that were hit by Israeli gunfire and praised the peacekeepers for their “valuable work.” Italy has about 1,000 soldiers deployed as U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry also denounced the Israeli strikes on the U.N. base as a “dangerous escalation” and “flagrant violation of international law.”

Israeli police arrest Palestinians in connection with alleged bomb attack plan

TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel’s police and Shin Bet internal security service said on Thursday they arrested five Palestinians from northern Israel associated with the Islamic State group over an alleged plan to bomb a mall in Tel Aviv.

The Shin Bet said the five men were active in online discussions on how to plant a car bomb that would topple large skyscrapers in central Tel Aviv. The suspects also allegedly watched videos of Islamic State attacks in Syria.

Police said they thwarted the plan “in the early stages of its implementation” and seized weapons from their home. Police did not provide further evidence. Two of the men had expressed interest in going abroad to fight with the Islamic State, according to police.

The arrests came as Israel faced a spate of shooting and stabbing attacks carried out by Palestinians from Israel and the occupied West Bank that have killed 9 people and wounded dozens in recent days.

Italy summons Israeli ambassador over strike on UN base

ROME — Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto has urgently summoned the Israeli ambassador to Italy to discuss the strike on a U.N. peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon where Italian personnel operate.

Italy has about 1,000 soldiers deployed in Lebanon, participating in the UN peacekeeping mission.

A UNIFIL spokesperson said Thursday that two peacekeepers were hospitalized after its headquarters in Naqoura was directly hit by Israeli tank fire. Israeli forces have “deliberately” fired at the UN position in recent days, the spokesperson said.

The U.N. peacekeeping chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said last week that U.N. peacekeepers were staying in their positions on Lebanon’s southern border despite Israel’s request to vacate some areas before it launched its ground operation against Hezbollah militants.

UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border. The force has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from around 50 countries.

2 peacekeepers wounded after Israeli fire hits UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon

BEIRUT — The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said Thursday an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers, who were hospitalized.

UNIFIL said in a statement that its headquarters and nearby positions “have been repeatedly hit.” It said the army also fired on a nearby bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker’s entrance.

Strike on central Gaza shelter kills at least 27

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah killed 27 people, including a child and seven women, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought. It said several other people were wounded.

An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces.

“We appeal to the world. We are dying!” one man screamed.

The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike targeting a militant command and control center inside the school. Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that were turned into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of hiding out in them.

Witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons said the strike occurred while school managers were meeting with representatives of an aid group in a room normally used by Hamas-run police who provide security. They said there were no police in the room at the time.

Turkey evacuates c

itizens from Lebanon

Over 2,000 Turkish citizens and some foreign nationals started boarding a Turkish military ship late Wednesday that brought in aid and will take them out of a country being hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah.

It's part of a six-ship convoy including escorts that set sail from the southern Turkish port of Mersin early Wednesday, transporting 300 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, hygiene kits, kitchenware, tents, beds and blankets.

Besides the Turkish citizens, people from Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan were among those who applied to evacuate on the ships. Officials did not provide numbers.

Turkey’s government plans to organize more sea evacuations if necessary and is contemplating charter flights to repatriate citizens.

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Top UN official in Lebanon says ceasefire is still on the table

UNITED NATIONS – The top U.N. official in Lebanon repeated her call for an immediate cease-fire, saying the 21-day cease-fire proposal launched by the U.S. and France is still on the table “and very relevant.”

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said Wednesday that a halt to fighting is the only way to ease “the colossal human suffering that is happening right now,” address Lebanon’s “humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions” and provide a window “for diplomatic efforts to take hold and succeed.”

The U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon expressed hope during a video press conference from Beirut “that Israel will now, or soon, be ready to add its support to the many calls and appeals out there for a cease-fire or a pause.”

“I’m not saying that it’s going to be an easy ride or walk in a park,” she said. “It will be difficult, but I am convinced that it’s doable, and it’s in the interest of Lebanon, in the interest of Israel to find sustainable solutions.”

Hennis-Plasschaert said there must also be a realistic roadmap to implement the 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the Israeli-Hezbollah war. Its key provisions include disarming all armed groups including Hezbollah and deploying the Lebanese army throughout the country’s south, which borders Israel and is mainly controlled by the militant group.

“At the end of the day, it is the lack or non-implementation of resolution 1701 over the past 18 years that led to today’s harsh reality,” Hennis-Plasschaert said.