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Key points
- At least 21 people were killed in an Israeli attack in the city of Aitou, officials said.
- Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will attack Hezbollah “without mercy, anywhere in Lebanon – including Beirut.”
- Netanyahu also reiterated his calls for UN peacekeepers to leave combat zones in Lebanon.
As Israel has pushed its troops through southern Lebanon in an attempt to eradicate Hezbollah and its military infrastructure, tensions have increased between Israel and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The UN said on Sunday, the latest allegations of Israeli violations against peacekeepers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday rejected accusations that Israeli forces had deliberately harmed UNIFIL peacekeepers as “completely false” and reiterated a call for them to withdraw from combat zones close to the border with Israel.
He said Hezbollah used UNIFIL positions as cover for attacks that killed Israelis, including on Sunday, when a drone strike on a military base killed four soldiers.
“Israel has every right to defend itself against Hezbollah and will continue to do so,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
He said he regretted any harm to UNIFIL personnel, but added that the best way to ensure their safety was to “obey Israel’s request and temporarily stay out of harm’s way.”
The force’s spokesman said in a video posted on X on Monday that the peacekeeping mission would remain.
Meanwhile, as Israel expanded its targets, an airstrike in the north killed at least 21 people, health officials said.
To date, the focus of Israeli military operations has been in Lebanon in the south, the Bekaa Valley in the east and the .
The strike in the Christian-majority city of Aitou hit a house rented to displaced families, the city’s mayor, Joseph Trad, told Reuters news agency.
In addition to the deaths, eight people were injured, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
Local television broadcast footage of the aftermath of the attack in Aitou, showing rescuers searching through piles of rubble and medics lifting a victim, wrapped in a white shroud, into an ambulance.
Netanyahu, who visits the military base in central Israel, where Following a drone strike by Hezbollah, Israel said it would continue to attack the Iran-backed movement “without mercy, anywhere in Lebanon – including Beirut.”
resumed a year ago when the militant group began firing rockets into Israel in support of Palestinian militants Hamas at the start of the Gaza war. .
Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,309 people in Lebanon over the past year, the Lebanese government said in its daily update. The majority have been killed since late September, when Israel expanded its military campaign.
Israel says its operations in Lebanon are aimed at securing the return of tens of thousands of people displaced from their homes in northern Israel.
The entire Middle East remains on high alert that Israel will retaliate against Iran in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
The US said on Sunday it would send troops to Israel, along with an advanced anti-missile system.
On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon strongly encouraged its citizens to leave “now,” warning that additional flights the government has set up since Sept. 27 to help U.S. citizens leave would not continue indefinitely.
limited its monitoring capabilities, and UN sources say they fear any violations of international law in the conflict will be impossible to monitor.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said EU member states had taken too long to condemn Israeli attacks on UNIFIL soldiers, describing them as “completely unacceptable”.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged EU members to respond to a request from Madrid and Ireland to suspend the bloc’s free trade deal with Israel over the attacks on Lebanon and Gaza.
EU countries, led by Italy, France and Spain, have thousands of troops in the 10,000-strong peacekeeping mission.
