Four United Nations peacekeepers were wounded in southern Lebanon on Tuesday when a rocket hit a base, while another peacekeepers’ base was damaged by rocket fire and a patrol was shelled as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare visit to the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
4 UN peacekeepers wounded in southern Lebanon
The peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that “a rocket, probably fired by non-state actors inside Lebanon,” hit the mission’s base in the eastern village of Ramyah, injuring four peacekeepers, three of whom need hospitalisation.
In the southern village of Shamaa, where fierce fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli army is taking place, five rockets damaged the UNIFIL Western Sector headquarters. UN force officials said it was the second attack on the base in a week, adding that there were no casualties.
In another attack, an armed man “fired directly” at a UNIFIL patrol in the Khirbet Selm neighbourhood, but no one was injured, the statement said.
UNIFIL added that it had launched an investigation into each of the violent episodes and informed the Lebanese army. The statement said:
“UNIFIL once again reminds all actors involved in the ongoing hostilities to respect the inviolability of United Nations peacekeepers and premises.”
Netanyahu makes rare visit to Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday made a rare visit to the Palestinian Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military is waging a bloody war with Hamas. Netanyahu said his country’s army has destroyed the Palestinian group’s military capabilities and maintains it will no longer rule the enclave.
Israeli PM said in a video:
“Hamas will not rule Gaza. Whoever dares to harm our hostages will have blood on his head. We will pursue you and we will catch you.”
Israeli army destroys 2 Palestinian structures, 4 injured in West Bank
Four Palestinians were injured in Israeli shelling in the West Bank on Wednesday when the army demolished two structures in the occupied territory, a local official said.
Israeli troops backed by two military bulldozers stormed the town of Deir Ballut, west of the central West Bank city of Salfit, and demolished a house and carpentry for lacking a building permit, said the town’s mayor Samir Nimer.
He said clashes broke out during the demolition, during which Israeli forces fired live ammunition and stun grenades. Four Palestinians were injured in the clashes, Nimer added.
Israeli authorities demolished 45 Palestinian homes and structures last month and issued demolition warrants for another 38 structures, according to the official commission on resistance to the walls and settlements.
Figures released by the commission also show that Israeli authorities have demolished more than 500 homes and structures in the occupied West Bank since October 7 last year.
Tensions are high in the West Bank because of Israel’s brutal war with the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 44,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
Since then, Israeli army fire in the occupied territory has killed nearly 785 Palestinians and injured more than 6,400, according to the health ministry.
In July, the UN International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion declaring Israel’s decade-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanding the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
