Netanyahu’s troops fight “hand to hand” with Hezbollah militiamen

Jerusalem. Yesterday, Israel continued its bombings against the Gaza Strip, killing 26 Palestinians and wounding 130. Meanwhile, it launched attacks on a market and a mosque in Lebanon, while its troops engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Hezbollah militants. which in turn launched drones towards an Israeli base, leaving four soldiers dead and at least 67 wounded.

Two Israeli tanks broke into a base of the United Nations Peace Forces in Lebanon (Finul) in the southern area of ​​Ramyah, in the municipality of Bint Jbeil, early yesterday morning, an operation in which at least 15 of its troops were intoxicated. by shell smoke

Hours later, Finul reported new Israeli violations, including the forcible entry of tanks into its base, where they destroyed and broke through the main gate, remaining there for “about 45 minutes.”

The time has come to withdraw Finul from Hezbollah strongholds and combat zones, Netanyahu said in a statement addressed to the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres.

“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has requested it repeatedly and has been met with a repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields,” he added.

“Peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly” along Lebanon’s border with Israel, Guterres spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.

Guterres stressed in a message that the blue helmetsThey should never be attacked.”

The Israeli army reported that Hezbollah fighters fired anti-tank missiles at its troops, wounding 28 soldiers very close to the Finul post, and that a tank helping to evacuate victims under fire retreated towards the IDF post. blue helmets.

“It was a tank under intense fire, with massive casualties, retreating to get out of danger,” the international spokesman for the Tel Aviv armed forces, Nadav Shoshani, told reporters.

The IDF said it used a “smoke screen” to cover the evacuation of wounded soldiers, but stressed that its actions did not represent “any danger to the UN force.”

Israel declared Guterres persona non grata and banned him from entering its territory, accusing him of “inability to condemn Iran for a missile attack at the beginning of the month,” a fact that has been rejected by more than one hundred nations.

Finul was created in 1978 after Israel’s first invasion of southern Lebanon – fighting against the Palestine Liberation Organization – with the mandate to monitor and safeguard peace in that area. But Israel invaded again in 1982 and kept southern Lebanon under occupation until 2000. During those 18 years, Hezbollah was born, supported by Iran, to fight against Tel Aviv.

In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought again for five weeks, after which, through UN Resolution 1701, Finul – a force of 9,500 troops of different nationalities – was entrusted with keeping that border free of troops; The presence of Lebanese soldiers is allowed, since Beirut is not part of the conflict between Tel Aviv and Hezbollah.

The IDF yesterday crossed the Lebanese border carrying journalists and showed them alleged Hezbollah positions that had been taken, including two tunnels, one of them 300 meters from the Finul base.

For now, Hezbollah killed four soldiers in a drone attack against an Israeli army base in Binyamina, near Haifa Bay; 67 troops were wounded, seven of them seriously, in one of the worst setbacks the IDF has suffered.

Two drones were detected by radars over the Mediterranean; one of them was intercepted, the other disappeared and hit the military base cafeteria without the sirens sounding. It happened after dinner time, Israeli media reported Haaretz y The Times of Israel.

Hezbollah dedicated this attack to its leader Hassan Narallah, assassinated by Israel on September 27, and stated that it “promises the enemy that what he witnessed in the south of Haifa is nothing compared to what awaits him if he continues his aggression against our noble people.” and loved.”

The Lebanese movement asserted that its militiamen were fighting “with automatic weapons” and “rockets” against Israeli soldiers in at least four border villages.

The Israeli army, in turn, reported that there were “hand-to-hand” battles with Hezbollah and announced the capture of a fighter from the Shiite group, the first since it launched the ground offensive in Lebanon on September 30.

Israeli aircraft intensified bombing against villages in southern Lebanon, after hitting a Nabatiyeh market in the early hours of the morning, which dates back to the time of the Ottoman Empire, and destroying a mosque in the village of Kfar Tibnit.

The Lebanese Red Cross reported that several of its first responders were injured, as well as three Lebanese army soldiers.

In the central Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike last night killed at least 22 people in a shelter school in Nuseirat, including a family of eight. In addition, it left 80 injured, according to the report Al Jazeera at the close of this edition.

Explosions outside the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah left three dead and around 50 injured early today.

For its part, the WHO managed to supply two hospitals in Gaza with support from the Red Cross, for the first time since October 1.

Israel has killed 42,227 people since it began its war against the Gaza Strip a year ago, and in Lebanon the offensive that began last month has left 2,300 dead.