LIVE – Lebanon: Blue Helmets targeted by fire near the Israeli border

The head of Iranian diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, met his Qatari counterpart in Doha on Thursday, against a backdrop of Israeli threats against Tehran.

Qatar plays a mediating role, with the United States and Egypt, in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in Gaza, and recently pleaded for an end to violence in Lebanon, where the Israeli army is increasing its operations targeting Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Iran.

Two peacekeepers from the UN force deployed along the border between Lebanon and Israel were “targeted” by “fire on three positions” from UNIFIL, a UNIFIL spokesperson said on Thursday. ‘AFP. The positions were in the Lebanese border towns of Ras al-Naqoura and Labouneh, where Israeli troops are fighting Lebanese Hezbollah.

In Lebanon, the war comes on top of the serious difficulties caused by the economic crisis. An LCI team met residents who are facing a critical situation.

The Palestinian Red Crescent announced that it had recorded 28 deaths on Thursday following an Israeli strike on a school in Deir el-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip. “Our teams dealt with 28 dead and 54 injured following the targeting by the Israeli occupation army of the Rafidah school, adjacent to our headquarters in Deir el-Balah,” said a Red Crescent statement.

The Israeli army announced for its part that it had carried out a “precise” airstrike on “terrorists […] in a command post […] installed in buildings previously used as a school.

Lebanese Hezbollah claimed Thursday to have “destroyed an Israeli tank which was advancing” towards the town of Ras Naqoura, on the border, while the Israeli army said it was deploying new troops in southern Lebanon. The pro-Iranian movement claims to have caused victims among Israeli troops.

A ship was damaged Thursday by a “projectile” off the coast of the port of Hodeida, controlled by Houthi rebels, in western Yemen, the British maritime safety agency (UKMTO) announced, specifying that it was not There were no victims.

The agency did not say who owned the ship or who was behind the attack, but the Houthis regularly claim responsibility for firing on ships they say are linked to Israel in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The ship’s captain reported that it had been “hit by an unknown projectile” and had “sustained damage”, according to a UKMTO statement. “No fire or casualties have been reported” and “the ship is heading to its next port of call,” she added.

The official Syrian agency reported Thursday Israeli air raids targeting the central regions of Homs and Hama, the day after a strike in the south of the country. “At approximately 1:00 a.m. (10:00 p.m. GMT Wednesday), the Israeli enemy launched an air attack (…) targeting an automobile assembly plant in the Hassia industrial zone in the Homs region,” as well as a military position in the Hama region, reported the official Sana agency.

“The losses were limited to material damage,” added the same source. Citing the head of the industrial zone, Sana specified that the “air attack” had hit, in addition to the factory, vehicles “loaded with medical and relief supplies” causing “a major fire”

Joe Biden asked Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to “minimize the impact on civilians” in Lebanon, particularly in Beirut, while “affirming Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah,” according to a report of their telephone conversation of the day.

This White House statement does not provide details on Israel’s expected response to the Iranian missile attack on October 1, but emphasizes that the American president and the Israeli prime minister agreed to “stay in close contact over the coming days, directly and through their teams of national security advisors.

Joe Biden, who had not spoken directly to the Israeli leader for seven weeks, “underlined the need for a diplomatic solution” to allow the return of the civilian populations of northern Israel and southern Lebanon.