IDF names four soldiers killed in Hezbollah drone strike at army base in Israel

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL said Israeli tanks forcibly entered the gates of one position early on Sunday and destroyed the main gate. They later fired smoke rounds near peacekeepers, causing skin irritation. UNIFIL called the incident a “further flagrant violation of international law.”

International criticism is growing after Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on UN peacekeepers since the start of the ground operation in Lebanon. Five peacekeepers have been wounded in attacks that struck their positions, with most blamed on Israeli forces.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, called Sunday’s incident “deeply worrying” and said attacks against peacekeepers may constitute a war crime.

Israel’s military says Hezbollah operates in the peacekeepers’ vicinity, without providing evidence.

Military officials said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers backed into a UN post on Sunday while under fire. A smoke screen was used to provide cover, they said.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani asserted that Israel has tried to maintain constant contact with UNIFIL, and any instance of UN forces being harmed will be investigated at “the highest level.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for UNIFIL to heed Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah.

“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” he said in a video addressed to the UN secretary-general, who has been banned from entering Israel.

Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it, and relations have plunged further since the start of the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, drawing retaliatory airstrikes. The conflict escalated in September with Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his senior commanders.

Israel launched a ground operation earlier this month. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since September, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were Hezbollah fighters. At least 58 people have been killed in rocket attacks on Israel, nearly half of them soldiers.

Israeli airstrikes overnight destroyed an Ottoman-era market in Lebanon’s southern city of Nabatiyeh, killing at least one person and wounding four.

“Our livelihoods have all been leveled,” said Ahmad Fakih, whose shop was destroyed. Rescuers searched pancaked buildings as Israeli drones buzzed overhead.

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets, without elaborating, and said it continued to target the militants on Sunday.

Separately, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for casualties in a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon when a second strike left four paramedics with concussions and damaged two ambulances.

The Red Cross said the operation had been coordinated with UN peacekeepers, who informed the Israeli side.

Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza almost daily. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.

In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking Jabaliya, where the military says militants have regrouped. Over the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the built-up refugee camp, which dates to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, and other areas.

Israel has ordered the full evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after a mass evacuation ordered in the war’s opening weeks.

Palestinians fear Israel intends to permanently depopulate the north to establish military bases or Jewish settlements there.

The United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since October 1.

The military confirmed that hospitals were included in evacuation orders but said it had not set a timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate patient transfers.

Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service, said the bodies of a “large number of martyrs” remain uncollected from the streets and under rubble.

“We are unable to reach them,” he said, asserting that dogs are eating some remains.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked a year ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages are still held in Gaza, a third believed to be dead.

Israel’s bombardment and its ground invasion of Gaza have killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and left much of the territory in ruins. The ministry does not distinguish between militants or civilians, but says women and children make up over half the deaths.

Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.