Lebanon says 3 killed and several UN peacekeepers, Lebanese soldiers injured in strike
Hezbollah fires more than 120 rockets into Israel, wounding man, 85; UNESCO to hold a special meeting on efforts to protect Lebanese historical sites amid fighting
An Israeli airstrike on Thursday killed three people and injured a number of UN peacekeepers and Lebanese army soldiers in the vicinity, Lebanese authorities said as Israel pounded Hezbollah targets and the terror group launched dozens of rockets into Israel.
The Lebanese army said three of its troops and four Malaysian UN peacekeepers were hurt in an Israeli strike near an army checkpoint in the southern city of Sidon.
“The Israeli enemy targeted a car while it was passing through the Awali checkpoint in Sidon, which led to the killing of three citizens who were inside it, in addition to the injury of three soldiers manning the checkpoint and four members of the Malaysian” contingent in the UNIFIL peacekeeping force, the Lebanese army said in a statement.
Lebanese authorities do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their reports of casualties in the fighting and did not identify the three occupants of the car.
There was no comment on the incident from the IDF.
After previous injuries among members of the UN peacekeeping force amid fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel asked the force to leave southern Lebanon but it refused.
Earlier, a Lebanese security source told AFP a woman was killed in a strike that targeted a car on a key road linking the capital Beirut with the Bekaa Valley and Syria’s Damascus.
Israel has frequently targeted vehicles of terror operatives in its air campaign.
Thursday’s strike was the fourth time the road has been targeted within two weeks.
Two cars were targets on the same route last week, including a van loaded with Hezbollah ammunition, a Lebanese security source said.
In a statement, the municipalities of Araya and Kahale, two Christian villages in the area, “denounced the use of international roads for the movement of armed men and weapons, which endangers innocent people.”
They asked the Lebanese army to take the necessary measures to prevent them from doing so.
The reported strikes were among several carried out by the IDF on Thursday.
Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah aerial forces command center in the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre, with the military saying it was used to carry out explosive-laden drone attacks on Israel, as well as manage surveillance drones.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו לפני זמן קצר, מתחם פיקוד ושליטה במרחב צור ממנו פעלו מחבלי היחידה האווירית של חיזבאללה (127), בחמ״ל זה פעלה היחידה למימוש מתווי כטב״מי נפץ ואיסוף לעבר שטח מדינת ישראל<< pic.twitter.com/woLUm9s0F9
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 7, 2024
Separately, the IDF said fighter jets struck Hezbollah weapon depots and rocket launchers in southern Lebanon, including a launcher used to fire rockets at the Carmel region earlier in the day.
85-year-old man injured in rocket attack
The strikes came as Hezbollah fired some 120 rockets into Israel on Thursday.
An 85-year-old man was lightly injured by shrapnel from a rocket that hit Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk, the Magen David Adom emergency service reported. He was also treated for extreme anxiety, and was taken by ambulance to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, medics added.
The incident came the day after a rocket killed Sivan Sade, 18, in the same community.
An afternoon barrage of some 40 missiles triggered sirens in the Upper and Western Galilee and Haifa Bay area. The military said some were shot down, while others struck inside Israel.
In another barrage, some 50 more rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, with about 20 targeting the Western Galilee and about 30 targeting the Haifa area.
Separately, the IDF said a drone launched from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses over the Galilee Panhandle.
Video shared online showed a parked car in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Yam on fire, after apparently being hit by a rocket.
A direct hit inside Kiryat Yam pic.twitter.com/l9ksfFgEkT
— MagicFlower ????????????️???? (@MagicFLower22) November 7, 2024
Amid the fighting, the UN’s cultural body UNESCO on Thursday said it would hold a meeting later this month to consider enhanced protection of cultural sites in Lebanon.
An extraordinary session of a UNESCO committee will be held at the body’s Paris base on November 18 to consider the inscription of Lebanese cultural properties on UNESCO’s international list of sites under “enhanced protection” as well as more funding, it said.
The announcement came after more than 100 Lebanese lawmakers appealed to the UN earlier in the day.
The appeal to UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay followed Israeli strikes near ancient ruins in the southern city of Tyre and the eastern city of Baalbek in recent weeks.
“As parliamentarians, we bring to your attention an urgent need: the protection of Lebanon’s historic sites in Baalbek, Tyre, Sidon and other invaluable landmarks currently at risk due to the escalation of the atrocities,” the lawmakers said.
Lebanon is home to six UNESCO World Heritage sites, including Roman ruins in Baalbek and Tyre, where Hezbollah holds sway.
In Baalbek, Israeli strikes on Wednesday destroyed a heritage house and damaged a historic hotel near the city’s Roman temples, according to local authorities. The strike hit just a few meters from the ruins, the closest since the start of the war, officials said.
“We are waiting for engineers from UNESCO and the Directorate General of Antiquities” to determine if there was any damage, Baalbek mayor Mustafa al-Shall told AFP.
In Tyre, Israeli strikes have hit close to the city’s Roman ruins.
The Trump effect
A Hezbollah lawmaker on Thursday said the terror group welcomes any effort to stop the war in Lebanon, but does not pin its hopes for a ceasefire on a particular US administration, when asked about Donald Trump’s election victory this week.
US diplomatic efforts to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which included a 60-day ceasefire proposal, faltered last week ahead of the US election on Tuesday, in which former president Trump recaptured the White House.
“It might be a change in the party who is in power, but when it comes to Israel, they have more or less the same policy,” Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi told Reuters. “We want to see actions, we want to see decisions taken.”
Moussawi acknowledged the heavy toll of Israeli attacks mostly in Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim-dominated south and east and Beirut’s southern suburbs, but claimed the group’s military capabilities remained strong.
“Our hearts are broken – we are losing very dear lives. This feeling that [Israel] cannot be punished or brought to international justice is a result of US support which renders them immune to accountability,” he said. “America is a full partner in what’s happening because they can exercise influence to stop this destruction.”
Mouwassi’s comments contrasted with remarks by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Jerusalem, that with Trump’s election, conditions could be ripe for an end to the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
“On the one hand, the very significant tactical successes obtained by Israel, and in particular the elimination of [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar, the architect of this ignoble massacre, favor the end of military operations,” said Barrot, speaking in French to cameras outside the Foreign Ministry, in between meetings with outgoing Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
“On the other hand, a new American president has been elected. He has never made a secret of his desire to end the interminable wars in the Middle East. The conditions therefore seem to me to be ripe for moving, in the coming weeks, toward a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflicts.”
Barrot said he was discussing with Katz and Dermer a diplomatic agreement that will lead to “a strong, sovereign Lebanese state, with a monopoly on legitimate force, which will be able to live in security alongside Israel.”
Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in late September, aiming to make it safe for some 60,000 displaced residents of northern Israel to go home.
Out of fear Hezbollah would invade northern Israel, the residents were evacuated after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed the south on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
A day later, Hezbollah-led forces began attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the border. The Iran-backed terror group has said its near-daily attacks were in support of Gaza amid the war there.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 41 civilians. In addition, 62 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.
