A new peacekeeper was injured in southern Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced on Saturday, hit by a bullet of “origin not yet determined” while UNIFIL is in the crossfire of Israel and Hezbollah.
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Friday evening, “a peacekeeper was hit by fire while a military action was taking place not far from the UNIFIL headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura,” reports a press release from the force which has 10,000 men in the south of the country. Lebanon. On Thursday and Friday, UNIFIL announced that four of its members, Indonesians and Sri Lankans, had been injured, including at least two due to an attack by Israeli troops.
At least 15 people were killed on Saturday in Israeli raids on three villages north and south of Beirut, outside the strongholds of pro-Iranian Hezbollah, reports the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
A “strike by the Israeli enemy on Maaysra”, a Shiite village in a predominantly Christian mountainous region north of Beirut, left “nine dead and 15 injured”, details the ministry.
On site, excavators were busy clearing the rubble and rescuers were carrying out searches, noted an AFP correspondent.
Furthermore, “four people were killed and 18 others injured” in an “Israeli enemy strike” on Barja, a Sunni village in the Chouf region south of the capital, continues the ministry.
On the north coast, in Deir Billa, 15 kilometers from Batroun, the official ANI agency reports another Israeli strike “on a house where displaced people from the south were”, a traditional stronghold of Hezbollah.
This raid left “two dead and four injured,” said the ministry, adding that DNA tests were underway to identify human remains which could increase this toll.
In the smoking rubble where bedding and clothes lay, residents searched with their bare hands, noted an AFP correspondent.
In the east, the Tal Chiha hospital reported “slight material damage” after “strikes not far from the predominantly Christian town” of Zahle. He said there had been no casualties and that it remained operational.
Two other hospitals in the region also suffered damage after strikes in the surrounding area, the ministry added. The official ANI agency also reports damage at a university.
All of these localities are outside areas usually considered Hezbollah strongholds.
ANI also reports Israeli strikes on the Bekaa Valley, also in the east of the country, but also in the South, notably on a HQ of rescue workers affiliated with Hezbollah.
Furthermore, an Israeli strike targeted a market in the large town of Nabatiyeh on Saturday evening, about ten kilometers from the border with Israel in the south, reports ANI.
The Ministry of Health lists eight injured and indicates that firefighters are still working to put out the fires and clear the rubble.
The Israeli army had recently urged residents of 25 localities, including Nabatiyeh which has several hospitals and regional administrations, to move north, as it stepped up its strikes and began its ground incursions into southern Lebanon.
For a year, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged cross-border fire which three weeks ago turned into open war with Israeli ground incursions in the south and airstrikes across the country.
On Friday, these raids left 26 dead in Lebanon, according to the Ministry of Health, which has recorded more than 2,255 deaths over the past year, half since the outbreak of open war on September 23.
Furthermore, a new peacekeeper was injured in southern Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced on Saturday, hit by a bullet whose “origin […] has not yet [été] determined”, while UNIFIL is under the crossfire of Israel and Hezbollah.
Friday evening, “a peacekeeper was hit by fire while a military action was taking place not far from the UNIFIL headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura,” reported a press release from the force which has 10,000 men in the south of the country. Lebanon. On Thursday and Friday, UNIFIL announced that four of its members, Indonesians and Sri Lankans, had been injured, including at least two due to an attack by Israeli troops.