Israel accused of firing at UN building in Lebanon, Gaza strike kills 27
Global News
The attack on the U.N.'s southern Lebanon headquarters, which injured two peacekeepers, drew widespread condemnation and prompted Italy to summon Israel's ambassador in protest.
An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people on Thursday, Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military said it targeted militants, but people sheltering there said the strike hit a meeting of aid workers.
Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. The military launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week.
In a separate development, the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers, who were hospitalized. The attack drew widespread condemnation and prompted the Italian Defense Ministry to summon Israel’s ambassador in protest.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL said in a statement that its headquarters and nearby positions “have been repeatedly hit.” It said the Israeli army also fired on a nearby bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker’s entrance.
The reports came as the Israeli military continued to pound Hezbollah targets in Lebanon while the militant group kept up its rocket attacks, setting off air raid sirens in parts of northern Israel.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on Thursday killed at least four people and wounded 17 in Karak, a village in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military.
The strike in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah killed 27 people, including a child and seven women, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought. It said several other people were wounded.