By Maya Gebeily and Alexander Cornwell
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Two people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted at least one senior Hezbollah figure in central Beirut on Thursday, security sources said, after U.N. peacekeepers said Israeli forces had fired on some of their positions in south Lebanon.
At least nine others were injured in the attack after nightfall, the security sources said. A large fire blazed in the background as rescue workers used hand torches to search through the rubble for survivors, according to videos broadcast by Hezbollah’s al-Manar television.
It was not clear who the Hezbollah targets were. The neighbourhood was not previously hit by Israel and is well removed from Beirut’s southern suburbs, Hezbollah’s headquarters repeatedly bombed by Israel.
A thick column of smoke rose above central Beirut after what appeared to be Israel’s latest major aerial attack in a widening offensive against Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Earlier in the day, Israel warned Lebanese civilians not to return to homes in the south to avoid harm from fighting.
The UNIFIL force said two of its peacekeepers were injured an incident when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force’s main headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura, hitting the tower and causing them to fall. There were no casualties in two other incidents, a U.N. source said.
“Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law,” UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that it was following up with the Israeli military.
Hezbollah said it had fired a missile salvo at Israeli forces on Thursday as they were trying to pull casualties out of the Ras al-Naqoura area, and they were directly hit.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
But in New York, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said Israel was focused on fighting Hezbollah and recommends “UNIFIL relocate 5 km (3 miles) north to avoid danger as fighting intensifies”. Reuters reported last week that the Israeli military had sent a message asking U.N. peacekeepers to prepare to move “as soon as possible, in order to maintain your safety”.
Danon added that “Israel has no desire to be in Lebanon, but it will do what is necessary” to drive Hezbollah away from its northern border so 70,000 displaced residents can return to their homes in northern Israel.
The conflict erupted one year ago when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas at the start of the Gaza war. It has intensified dramatically in recent weeks, with Israel bombing Beirut’s southern suburbs, the south and the Bekaa Valley, before sending in ground forces.
The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation in the region, awaiting Israel’s response to an Iranian missile strike on Oct. 1.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Tom Perry in London, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Clauda Tanios, Tala Ramadan and Ahmed Elimam in Dubai, Trevor Hunnicutt and Matt Spetalnick in Washington, John Irish in Paris; writing by Tom Perry; editing by Ros Russell, Mark Heinrich, Alexandra Hudson)
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