An Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza on Thursday killed at least 28 people, while the Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command centre. Lebanese military intelligence sources also reported the Israeli army opened fire at an Italian base UNIFIL along the demarcation line with Lebanon on Thursday.
Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement, referring to the school in Deir al-Balah:
Palestinian Red Crescent teams responded to the 28 killed and 54 injured in the Israeli occupation army’s strike on Rafidah school.
Thursday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where fighting has been ongoing for more than a year.
Israel strikes Italian UNIFIL bases in Lebanon
Israel on Thursday struck three UNIFIL bases in southern Lebanon, UN mission spokesman Andrea Tenenti told ANSA news agency. The mission includes about 1,000 Italian troops. Two of the outposts are Italian, while the third houses the mission’s headquarters.
Lebanese military intelligence sources said the Israeli army opened fire at an Italian base along the demarcation line with Lebanon on Thursday.
According to the sources, the IDF shelled the UNP 1-31 base on Laboune Hill, in an area under the responsibility of the Italian contingent. According to the same sources, after an Israeli drone flew over the base several times, Israeli artillery opened fire at the entrance of a bunker where Italian soldiers were sheltering.
The attack damaged communication systems between the base and the UNIFIL command in Naqoura. At least two UN peacekeepers were wounded in Nakra, Lebanese military security sources told ANSA news agency. The peacekeepers are Indonesian nationals who were wounded when an Israeli tank opened fire on an observation tower at the base, the Lebanese military said. Local medical sources said the two UN peacekeepers were not seriously injured.
Several cameras at two Italian outposts of UNIFIL bases were hit and destroyed in Naqura, but no Italian military personnel were injured, knowledgeable sources told ANSA news agency.
UN peacekeeping mission
UNIFIL is the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. The peacekeeping mission was established in 1978 as part of the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Its mission is to help the Lebanese government regain power in the region and restore international peace and security.
UNIFIL peacekeepers are also tasked with ensuring that there are no hostile acts of any kind in their area of operations, as well as protecting humanitarian workers and civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.
On October 1, Israel notified UNIFIL of its intention to launch limited ground incursions into southern Lebanon. The Irish military has previously stated that its troops deployed with UNIFIL “remain steadfast in their determination and resilience to fulfil the mission.”
In late September, as the war against Hamas in Gaza was still raging, Israel dramatically stepped up its fight against Hezbollah – a powerful, heavily armed Iranian proxy group deeply embedded in Lebanese politics – in response to the group firing more than 10,000 rockets into Israel in support of Hamas over the past year.
Blue Line
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the goal of operations across the Blue Line is to push Hezbollah fighters and weapons far enough away from Israel’s northern border to stop rocket fire and allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to their abandoned homes in the region. The IDF said cross-border ground operations launched in late September in southern Lebanon would be “limited, localised and targeted ground raids based on accurate intelligence.”
Lebanese officials say at least 2,141 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 8, 2024 – about half of them since the attack escalated less than a fortnight ago, and at least 22 in strikes on Wednesday alone. More than 10,000 people have been injured, according to the country’s health ministry.
UNIFIL peacekeepers operate along the 75-mile-long Blue Line in southern Lebanon. It is not an official international border, but for nearly five decades it has been designed to keep Lebanese and Israeli forces at a safe distance from each other.
Either side, Israel or Hezbollah, crosses the Blue Line or fires across it without permission from the Lebanese government, in violation of UN Resolution 1701, although such exchanges of fire have become an almost daily occurrence since October 8, 2023. The border is also sometimes crossed by Lebanese farmers and villagers, as it is not always clearly marked.
