Three UN peacekeepers were wounded after an Israeli strike hit their base in southern Lebanon on Friday, the UN told The National.
The peacekeepers were wounded after their position in the town of Qawzah was targeted, a UN representative said.
The strike came as fighting continues between Israel and Hezbollah along the Lebanon-Israel border. Overnight, Israel carried out at least 10 strikes on Beirut, hours after forcibly evicting hundreds of thousands of people from the Lebanese capital's densely populated southern suburbs.
Images showed black smoke rising from the city, while the limited videos available from within the southern suburbs showed extensive destruction and fires raging. As a result of the massive and rapid displacement of residents, the Lebanese government said it would open large sports arenas, including Beirut's Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, to host people with nowhere to stay.
Attacks continued throughout Friday on the southern suburbs as the Israeli military claimed they had begun operating against alleged Hezbollah targets there. At least eight further air strikes were reported.
Elsewhere, at least five people were killed and seven wounded in an Israeli air raid on the city of Sidon in south Lebanon, health officials said.
The attacks struck an apartment building in Sidon, a densely populated city that has become a refuge for many fleeing south Lebanon. Images from the site of the air strikes shows a severely damaged top floor. Premises used by Al Makassed, a philanthropic association dedicated to education and other social services, were also hit by the explosions.
A series of strikes on Nabi Chit, in eastern Lebanon, killed at least nine people and injured 17, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry, which added that rescue operations were still ongoing on Friday evening.
Israel also carried out a spree of overnight attacks across southern Lebanon – having forcibly displaced residents south of the Litani River two days ago – and bombed the eastern Bekaa Valley town of Douris, near the historic city of Baalbek, twice at dawn. There were no immediate reports of casualties, after Israel also ordered residents to flee those areas.
Israel said it had struck more than 500 targets in Lebanon since the start of the latest escalation, including a site used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, said on X that Israeli forces had carried out a new wave of air strikes during the day in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The targets included a site used by the IRGC's aviation unit in Lebanon, a Hezbollah naval unit facility, a site belonging to Hezbollah’s executive council and another used by the group’s financial unit.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, warned Israelis to leave towns within 5km of the border with Lebanon. The message was posted on the group's Telegram channel in Hebrew and used similar language and graphics to those seen on the Israeli military's eviction orders.
“Your military's aggression against Lebanese sovereignty and safe citizens, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the expulsion campaign it is carrying out will not go unanswered,” Hezbollah said.
The group has continued to carry out attacks on the Israeli military, including on invading soldiers inside south Lebanon.
The group added that it was now engaged in direct gunfights with the Israeli military, which is seeking to expand its occupation of southern Lebanon. Israel has said it will not evacuate its border towns and has sent more soldiers into Lebanon.
Calls for de-escalation
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher expressed particular concern about Lebanon, “a country that continues to be buffeted by other people’s wars”, where thousands have fled amid warnings of further Israeli strikes.
“We are also seeing a number of Lebanese citizens crossing into Syria, as well as massive displacement from the south and from the southern suburbs of Beirut including Dahiyeh amid further warnings of Israeli strikes, many of them incredibly threatening and bellicose in the way they describe what they plan to do to those areas,” he said.
The Lebanese presidency said in a post on X that it continued international contacts to request assistance from brotherly and friendly countries to “curb” Israeli escalating attacks on Lebanon.
President Joseph Aoun reiterated “his strong condemnation of the wide-scale Israeli attacks”, calling on all countries and the UN to intervene and put an end to what he described as a dangerous escalation by Israel.
In a last-minute move aimed at sparing Beirut from attack, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to refrain from extending its war further into Lebanon – but that appeal appeared to go unanswered.
The sudden displacement order for four neighbourhoods in the capital's southern suburbs caused many to flee on foot. Some slept outside, with Beirut's shelters full.
“We have opened all official schools and universities in various regions as shelters and we appeal to the families who have been displaced today to go to the north, Akkar and the Bekaa, as they have greater capacity,” said Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed.
Lebanon’s parliament will vote on Monday on a motion that would delay elections by two years, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab said.
“There is a consensus among MPs to extend the parliamentary term,” Mr Bou Saab said, after a meeting of the parliamentary bureau headed by influential Speaker Nabih Berri. The speaker has scheduled a session for Monday to vote on three laws that would bring about an extension.
At least 217 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since Monday, when the war between Hezbollah and Israel restarted, while almost 800 have been injured. About one million people were affected by the forced displacement orders.
Adla Massoud contributed to this report from New York
