By Amina Ismail, Timour Azhari and Ari Rabinovitch
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Two peacekeepers were injured on Friday after two explosions near a watchtower in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL said, while its main base in the area was shaken by explosions for the second time in 48 hours as Israeli forces battled Hezbollah.
UNIFIL in a statement said this was a “serious development”, adding the security of U.N. personnel and property must be guaranteed.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of the Palestinian militant group Hamas at the start of the Gaza war.
It has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah’s top leaders, and sending ground troops into areas of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.
Israel says its campaign in Lebanon aims to make northern Israel safe for tens of thousands of people forced to leave over the last year by Hezbollah rocket fire.
Its expanded operation has displaced more than 1.2 million people, according to the Lebanese government. More than 2,100 people have been killed and more than 10,000 wounded in more than a year of fighting in Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry says.
“We continue to operate against the enemy and will not stop until we ensure that we can safely return the residents not just now, but with a future outlook,” Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said in a video released by the military on Friday after he held a security assessment inside southern Lebanon on Thursday.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said a strike in the heart of Beirut late on Thursday had killed 22 civilians and wounded another 139.
Security sources said the target was senior Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa, and that he had survived.
A Hezbollah lawmaker visiting the site of the attack on Friday said no senior Hezbollah officials had been present at the time.
(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam, Amina Ismail, Timour Azhari, Tom Perry and Abdelhadi Ramahi in Beirut, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Clauda Tanios, Tala Ramadan and Ahmed Elimam in Dubai and Krishn Kaushi in New Delhi; Writing by Tom Perry, Lincoln Feast and Sharon Singleton; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Kevin Liffey)
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