UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warned on Saturday that a "catastrophic" conflict could erupt in the region as Israeli forces clashed on two fronts with Hezbollah and Hamas on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Meanwhile, Israel has faced a strong diplomatic response to the wounding of five Blue Helmets in southern Lebanon.
AFP from Beirut reported, citing the Lebanese Ministry of Health, that nine people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in two villages near Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
Israel had previously warned residents of southern Lebanon not to return home in the context of the ongoing war between the Israeli military and Hezbollah that has killed more than 1200 people and forced more than a million people to flee their homes since September 23.
Israel was saying, 'For your own safety, do not return to your homes until further orders... do not go south; If one goes south he may risk his life.'
Hezbollah said on Saturday it had fired missiles across the border into northern Israel. Then there was an air raid siren. The military said it intercepted a projectile.
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti
He told AFP in an interview that he feared Israeli tensions against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon could soon spiral out of control and "become a regional conflict with disastrous consequences for all."
Five peacekeepers were wounded in just two days of fighting in southern Lebanon, the UN said, and Tenenti said its outposts there had suffered "a lot of damage".
Saturday was the Yom Kippur holiday in Israel. On this day the Jews were busy fasting and praying. Public transport was closed. Shops and markets around Israel were closed.
After the holidays, attention is likely to return to Israel's expected retaliation against Iran. Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel on October 1.
Israel began striking Gaza on October 7 last year, shortly after suffering its deadliest attack from Iran-backed Hamas, and launched an offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon on September 30.
'Intentional Targeting'
Israel has come under fire from the UN, its Western allies and others after it ordered strikes on UN peacekeeping positions in Lebanon on Friday.
Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were injured in the second such incident in two days, UNIFIL said on Friday.
Israel's military said its troops responded to "an immediate threat" about 50 meters from the UNIFIL base in Nakura and promised a "thorough review".
Irish military chief of staff Sean Clancy said it was 'not an accidental act'. And French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed the peacekeepers had been 'deliberately targeted'.
Both countries are major troop contributors to UNIFIL. whose peacekeepers are on the front lines of the Israel-Hezbollah war.
Efforts to negotiate an end to the war have so far been unsuccessful. But Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would urge the UN Security Council to pass a new resolution calling for a 'full and immediate ceasefire'.
The Lebanese army said two soldiers were killed in an Israeli attack on one of their positions in southern Lebanon on Friday.
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf visited the site of a deadly Israeli attack earlier this week on Saturday in a show of support for Iran's ally Hezbollah.
A source close to Hezbollah said the attack targeted Hezbollah's security chief Wafiq Safa. But neither Hezbollah nor Israel did not confirm that he was a target.
After Israel vowed to respond strongly to Iran's second direct attack Ghalibaf's visit to Lebanon is a clear sign of Tehran's disobedience.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant vowed that the response would be "fatal, specific and sudden.
The US is pushing for a 'proportionate' response that will not push the region into a wider war. President Joe Biden urged Israel to avoid striking Iran's nuclear facilities or power infrastructure.
The death of Gaza
According to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, an October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hezbollah, backed by its Palestinian ally Hamas, killed 12,660 people, mostly civilians. This includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel's military operation in Gaza has wreaked havoc and killed 42,175 people, most of them civilians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said the Israeli offensive in Gaza continued, with the army besieging an area around Jabalia in the north, adding to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people trapped there.
Israeli military spokesman Adrai posted another warning on Saturday, ordering residents of a certain area around Jabalia to leave their homes.
Adrai X-A ordered residents to evacuate to the humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, citing "certain areas, including the shelters in between, are considered a dangerous war zone."
Some residents said they are not ready to move.
Sami Aslia, 27, told AFP: 'They are asking us to go south, but we are not going because of the danger. And the army is shooting people there.'
He said, 'There is no safe place, neither in the south nor in the north, everyone is in danger of death.'
On Friday, Gaza's Civil Defense Agency said 30 people were killed in Israeli strikes on areas including schools used as shelters for displaced people.
An AFP journalist in Gaza reported heavy shelling, explosions and gunfire further south in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City on Saturday.
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