The Italian Defense Ministry summoned the Israeli Ambassador to protest strikes on UNIFIL personnel that injured two peacekeepers.
At least 22 people were killed and 117 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on two densely populated areas of central Beirut.
The air raids in the center of the Lebanese capital apparently simultaneously targeted two residential buildings in separate neighborhoods, which the Israeli military said were affiliated with Hezbollah.
Israeli strikes are more frequent in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has based most of its operations.
Hezbollah’s Al Manar television channel reported that an attempted assassination of Wafiq Safaa senior security official of the group, had failed. She clarified that Safa was not in any of the targeted buildings.
Thursday’s strikes follow a year of exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel, which escalated into all-out war in recent weeks.
Israel stepped up heavy strikes across Lebanon, killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and dozens of the group’s commanders, and launched a ground operation at the end of September.
Hezbollah has expanded its rocket attacks into more populated areas inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life.
Peacekeepers targeted by Israeli tank in South Lebanon
The Beirut attacks came on the same day that Israeli forces fired on United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, wounding two.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that its headquarters and positions “were hit repeatedly“by Israeli forces.
She said an Israeli tank had “directly” fired at an observation tower at the force headquarters in the town of Ras al-Naqoura and that soldiers attacked a bunker near where the peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communications system.
Thursday evening, the Israeli army confirmed the shooting, and in a statement said it had asked UN soldiers to stay “in protected spaces, during an attack in the vicinity of the HQ”
The Italian Defense Ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador in protest and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the attack “unacceptable.”
Speaking before the United Nations Security Council, the Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations condemned Israeli strikes against UNIFIL personnel.
“This situation seriously endangers our peacekeepers“, declared Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
UNIFIL, which has more than 10,000 soldiers peacekeepers from dozens of countries, was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from South Lebanon after the 1978 Israeli invasion. Peacekeepers are present in South Lebanon to support the return to stability in within the mandate of the Security Council.
In another tweet on X, UNIFIL addresses the Israeli Forces directly, recalling “that they have an obligation to ensure the security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times “
A year-long hot war with Hezbollah
Hezbollah, ideologically aligned with Hamas, began firing rockets into Israel on October 8 last yearin support of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Hezbollah continued its rocket attacks into Israel on Thursday, triggering air warning sirens in parts of northern Israel.
Several drones heading towards Israel were intercepted, according to the army.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the security cabinet would meet Thursday evening to discuss the country’s response.
Lebanon’s health ministry says more than 2,000 people have been killed in firefights with Israel since last October and tens of thousands have been displaced across the border.