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UNIFIL Warns of Escalation in Lebanon-Israel Conflict

Beirut / Wassim Saif Al-Din / Anatolia

The international peacekeeping force UNIFIL in Lebanon warned on Friday that the escalation with Israel in the south of the country would spiral out of control.

UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said in a statement: “Today, an intense exchange of fire took place between Lebanon and Israel in the vicinity of the towns of Alma al-Shaab, Aita al-Shaab, Al-Dhahira, Al-Adaysah, and Houla.”

He added: “We learned with great sadness that during the aforementioned exchange of fire, a Lebanese photojournalist was killed, and there were also reports that other journalists were injured.”

He continued: “As tensions continue to escalate dangerously, the head of the UNIFIL mission and its Commander-in-Chief, Major General Aroldo Lazaro, calls for an urgent ceasefire,” noting that “the possibility of this escalation getting out of control is clear and must be stopped.”

Tenenti pointed out that “UNIFIL actively cooperated with the authorities on both sides of the Blue Line to calm the situation.”

Earlier Friday, the Israeli army announced that it had bombed Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, with drones.

He said in a statement, “Israeli army drones attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanon,” without further details.

The Israeli army’s announcement came shortly after Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack on Israeli border sites with Lebanon, in response to repeated Israeli bombing “on Lebanese villages in the south of the country.”

An Anadolu correspondent reported on Friday that a journalist from the Reuters agency was killed and five others were wounded, including two from the Qatari Al Jazeera channel, in an Israeli bombing on the border town of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.

The tensions on the Lebanese border come as the Israeli army continues, for the seventh day in a row, to target the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged since 2006, with intense air strikes that destroyed entire neighborhoods and left thousands dead and wounded among Palestinian civilians.

At dawn on Saturday, Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” in response to “the continuing attacks by Israeli forces and settlers against the Palestinian people, their property, and their sanctities, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.”

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2023-10-13 20:02:16
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