At least 22 dead in air strikes in central Beirut that UN peacekeepers fired on “repeatedly”.

BEIRUT (AP) – Israeli airstrikes hit various areas in central Beirut on Thursday evening, killing at least 22 people, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Two neighborhoods continued to smolder, further escalating Israel’s bloody conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

According to an AP photographer on the scene, the airstrike in central Beirut – the deadliest in more than a year of war – apparently targeted two residential buildings in different neighborhoods at the same time. It collapsed an eight-story building and destroyed the lower floors of the other.

The Israeli military said it was investigating the reported attacks. Israeli airstrikes have been far more frequent in the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah bases many of its operations.

After the attacks, Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported that an attempt to kill Wafiq Safa, a senior security official in the group, had failed. It was said that Safa was not in any of the buildings attacked.

Thursday’s attacks followed a year of clashes between Hezbollah and Israel that escalated into all-out war in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out waves of heavy attacks across Lebanon and launching a ground invasion. Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire into more densely populated areas deeper inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life.

The attack came on the same day that Israeli forces fired on U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, wounding two of them, drawing widespread condemnation and prompting the Italian Defense Ministry to summon the Israeli ambassador in protest.

Israeli attacks hit central Beirut

Witnesses reported large numbers of ambulances and people gathering in the rubble of two hit sites in Beirut, in the Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood and the Burj Abi Haidar area.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said 22 people were killed and 117 others were injured, without providing any information about their identities. Recent Israeli airstrikes in neighboring Beirut neighborhoods, particularly in the densely populated southern suburbs, have killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other senior commanders.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians on October 8, 2023, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation.

Hezbollah continued its rocket fire into Israel on Thursday, triggering air raid sirens in parts of northern Israel. The military said several drones heading towards Israel were intercepted.

Iran – which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups in the region – fired around 180 ballistic missiles into Israel last week in retaliation for the killing of top Hamas and Hezbollah fighters.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that its response to the Iranian missile attack will be “lethal” and “surprising” without giving further details as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to President Joe Biden.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Israel’s security cabinet would meet on Thursday evening to discuss the country’s response.

Before the recent attacks in Beirut, the Lebanese Crisis Response Unit said 28 people had been killed in Israeli attacks over the past day, bringing the total number of deaths in Lebanon to 2,169 since the war broke out last October.

Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians in northern Israel and 39 Israeli soldiers since the start of the war, both in northern Israel since October 2023 and in southern Lebanon since Israel launched its ground invasion on September 30. Israel says the invasion so far is focused on a narrow strip along the border and is aimed at pushing back militants so tens of thousands of Israelis can return to their homes in the north.

UN peacekeepers are caught in intensified fighting in Lebanon

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that its headquarters and positions had been “repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces.”

It said an Israeli tank fired “directly” at an observation tower at the armed forces headquarters in the city of Naqoura, Lebanon, and that soldiers attacked a bunker near peacekeeper shelters, damaging vehicles and a communications system. It was said that an Israeli drone flew to the entrance to the bunker.

The two UNIFIL troops injured in the attacks and hospitalized were Indonesian, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

The Israeli military admitted Thursday it had opened fire on a U.N. base in southern Lebanon and said it had ordered peacekeepers to “remain in protected spaces.”

Later on Thursday, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said 300 frontline peacekeepers on the southern Lebanon border had been temporarily moved to larger bases and plans to move another 200 would depend on security conditions if the conflict escalates. Jean-Pierre Lacroix told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in their positions but cannot carry out patrols due to air and ground attacks.

UNIFIL, which includes more than 10,000 peacekeepers from dozens of countries, was founded to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. After the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the United Nations expanded its mission and allowed peacekeepers to patrol a buffer zone established along the border.

Israel accuses Hezbollah of building militant infrastructure along the border, violating the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, strongly condemned Israeli attacks on UNIFIL positions as “an unlawful act for which there is no justification.”

From Italy, where about 1,000 soldiers are stationed as part of UNIFIL, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto went a step further, claiming that Israel had carried out targeted attacks on the UNIFIL base in southern Lebanon that “could constitute war crimes.”

Several other countries, including France, Spain and Jordan, also condemned the Israeli attacks.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said last week that peacekeepers would remain in their positions on Lebanon’s southern border despite Israel’s request to clear areas before it launched its ground operation against Hezbollah.

Crosetto added: “The United Nations and Italy cannot accept orders from the Israeli government.”

According to the aid organization, employees were killed in a school strike

Even as attention has shifted to Israel’s melee with Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran, Israel has continued to carry out attacks on alleged Palestinian militant targets across the Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli attack on a school housing displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 27 people, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli military said it targeted Palestinian militants, but people sheltering there said the attack hit a meeting of aid workers.

According to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were taken, the dead included a child and seven women. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived dismembered.

The Israeli military said it attacked a militant center inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has repeatedly attacked schools turned into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of seeking refuge in them.

“There were no militants. There was no Hamas,” said Iftikhar Hamouda, who fled the northern Gaza Strip at the start of the war.

“We went to tents. They bombed the tents… On the streets they bombed us. They bombarded us in the markets. They bombed us in the schools,” she said. “Where should we go?”

Israel’s offensive in Gaza began after the Hamas attack on October 7, when militants stormed Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250 others.

According to local health authorities, over 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, although there are no figures on militants and civilians. The war has destroyed large parts of the Gaza Strip and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, often multiple times.

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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip and Magdy from Cairo. Edith Lederer contributed from New York.