Israel fires at UN peacekeeping watchtower as 22 are killed in Beirut

• Israeli forces fired at a watchtower used by United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Friday, injuring two, a UN source said, the third day in a row peacekeepers have reported Israeli fire at their positions as Israel wages war on Hezbollah. READ MORE BELOW

• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that Israel should "stop killing innocent people" and that its actions in the Middle-East were backed by the United States and the European Union. READ MORE BELOW

• Russia's Foreign Ministry stated it was "outraged" by what it said was an Israeli military attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon and demanded Israel refrain from any "hostile actions" against them. READ MORE BELOW

• Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced what he said was an attack on the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon on Friday as a crime.

• UN officials voiced concerns Israeli evacuation orders in northern Gaza might affect its polio vaccination campaign set to start next week.

• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged the international community to stop selling weapons to Israel as he condemned attacks by Israel's armed forces against the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

• An escalation of conflicts in the Middle East is a serious threat to global security and everything must be done to avoid all-out war in Lebanon, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres insisted.

• The UN human rights office said over 100 medics and emergency workers had been killed in Lebanon since the conflict began a year ago.

• More than 42,126 Palestinians have been killed and 98,117 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.

•  A Liberia-flagged tanker was struck twice with missiles and drones in the Red Sea on Thursday morning, in an attack claimed by Houthi militants.

22 dead and over 100 injured

An Israeli strike late on Thursday in the heart of Beirut killed 22 people and injured more than 100, Lebanese authorities said. The target was a senior Hezbollah official - Wafiq Safa - who survived, according to three security sources.

In northern Israel, a Thai worker was killed when Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at a farming area, the national ambulance service said. The Israeli airforce killed a Hezbollah commander responsible for attacks with anti-tank missiles into the area of Ramot Naftali in northern Israel, the military said. Hezbollah issued no immediate comment on that claim.

The U.N. source said the UNIFIL peacekeeper tower which came under Israeli fire on Friday is located at the force's main base in Naqoura. On Thursday, UNIFIL said another two peacekeepers were wounded when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the same base, hitting it and causing them to fall.

The U.N. source said Israeli forces on Friday also breached the perimeter of another UNIFIL position which they had fired at on Thursday. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Friday's reported incidents.

"Stop bombing those with nothing"

Iranian President Pezeshkian, meanwhile, spoke to a Russian state TV reporter about the conflict. Israel says the operations in Lebanon aim to allow tens of thousands of its residents to return home after being forced to leave northern Israel due to Hezbollah rocket fire over the past year.

Hezbollah is firing at Israel in support of its ally Hamas, which triggered Israel's ground offensive in Gaza following an attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

"I would like to say to Israel: stop killing innocent people. Stop bombing residential buildings, people who have nothing anyway," said Pezeshkian, accusing Israel of violating every kind of international agreement. "It does this because it knows the U.S. and the European Union are behind it."

Russia condemns Israeli "outrage"

A U.N. source said that Israeli forces had fired at an observation post belonging to the UNIFIL peacekeeping force at its main base at Naqoura in southern Lebanon on Friday, wounding two people.

Israeli forces had also breached the perimeter of another UNIFIL position that they had fired at on Thursday, the source said. "Moscow is outraged by the actions of the Israeli military," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The Russian side demands that it refrain from any hostile actions against the UNIFIL peacekeepers carrying out their mission in Lebanon in accordance with the existing mandate of the United Nations Security Council and expresses its support and wishes the wounded a speedy recovery."

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