(Beirut) Three people were killed in an Israeli strike targeting their car Thursday at the entrance to Saida, a city in southern Lebanon, in which five peacekeepers were injured, according to UNIFIL, as well as three Lebanese soldiers.
Posted at 6:29 a.m.
Updated at 9:19 a.m.
Nadine CHALAK with Cyril JULIEN in Jerusalem
Agence France-Presse
The strike “by the Israeli enemy targeted a car and caused the death of three passengers,” the army said in a statement.
It occurred “as a convoy of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) passed an army checkpoint”, which controls the northern entrance to Saida, she said.
In a statement, UNIFIL said five peacekeepers were “slightly injured”.
According to the army, the injured peacekeepers are part of the Malaysian contingent of the UN force deployed since 1978 in southern Lebanon to act as a buffer with Israel. Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army was not immediately able to comment.
Israel carried out multiple airstrikes on Thursday on strongholds of pro-Iranian Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon bordering Israel and in the southern suburbs of Beirut where an area close to the country’s only international airport was hit.
Since September 23, Israel has been carrying out a campaign of intensive strikes against the Islamist movement Hezbollah in Lebanon, and since September 30 a ground offensive in the south of the country, with the objective of bringing home some 60,000 inhabitants of the north. ‘Israel displaced by cross-border firefight.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets at Israel since the start of the war on October 7, 2023 in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and the Israeli army, claiming to act in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
PHOTO HAIDER KADHIM, REUTERS
People inspect the rubble of damaged buildings following Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
On Thursday, an Israeli strike caused “minor damage” to buildings at Beirut International Airport, “but not to the terminal,” according to an airport official. Air traffic was not disrupted, authorities assured.
An AFP photographer saw a hangar adjoining the airport, badly damaged, by the strike, which came after Hezbollah announced on Wednesday that it had targeted a military base near Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s main airport.
“The parking lot shook”
Abou Elie, a taxi driver, was at Beirut airport at the time of the strike. “The whole parking lot shook,” he told AFP. “People carried their suitcases and started running. “.
During the night, strikes on the suburbs of the Lebanese capital were preceded by a call from the Israeli army for residents to evacuate.
PHOTO SAM SKAINEH, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of al-Ain near Baalbek, Lebanon, November 7, 2024
“We had to flee our homes several times,” lamented Ramzi Zaiter, a resident of this suburb.
The Israeli army also continues its air raids against Hezbollah in the south and east of Lebanon where it indicated having targeted dozens of targets and eliminated around “sixty terrorists” in several strikes in Baalbeck (East) and in the north of the Litani River, located about thirty kilometers from the Israeli border.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported a death toll of 40 in Israeli strikes on Wednesday in eastern Lebanon, particularly in Baalbeck.
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.
Hezbollah, whose leadership has been largely weakened, ensures that its men repel Israeli incursions and announces daily shots on Israel.
The ANI Agency reported on Thursday “violent fighting since midnight” after an “attempted incursion by the Israeli enemy” into Lebanese territory from northern Israel.
On its southern border, Israel continues its war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip beset by a humanitarian disaster.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the attack carried out on October 7, 2023 by Hamas on Israeli soil.
PHOTO MOHAMMED YASSIN, REUTERS
A man stands on the rubble of damaged buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, November 7, 2024.
« Perspective »
In the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the president-elect discussed the “Iranian threat” on Wednesday, according to Mr. Netanyahu’s office.
Tehran, the bête noire of the United States, said on Thursday that it hoped that the election of Donald Trump to the White House would allow Washington to “revisit the erroneous approaches of the past”.
Visiting Israel, the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot, sees a “prospect” for stopping the wars in Gaza and Lebanon after the election of Donald Trump.
In the north of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army announced that it had “eliminated around 50 terrorists” during the last 24 hours in Jabalia, and began an operation in the Beit Lahia sector.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Palestinians inspect the damage outside the building that was destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, November 7, 2024.
The Palestinian Civil Defense for its part reported at least 12 people killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on a school transformed into a refuge in a camp housing displaced families, near the city of Gaza (north).
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity .
Of the 251 people then kidnapped, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation in Gaza left 43,469 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, and caused a humanitarian disaster.
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