BEIRUT: A spokesman for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Saturday said Israel had requested they leave their positions in south Lebanon, where Israel is clashing with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, but they had refused. They asked us to withdraw "from the positions along the Blue Line... or up to five kilometres from the Blue Line," UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said, using the term for the demarcation line between both countries. "But there was a unanimous decision to stay."
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Saturday said he feared an Israeli escalation against Hezbollah in the country's south could soon spiral out of control. This risks "turning very soon into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone," Tenenti said, calling for a diplomatic solution.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that unknown gunfire a day earlier hit a peacekeeper, the fifth wounded in south Lebanon near the Israeli border in just two days. "Last night, a peacekeeper at UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqura was hit by gunfire due to ongoing military activity nearby... We do not yet know the origin of the fire," a statement said, adding that the peacekeeper was "stable." Clashes in the south of the country had inflicted "a lot of damage" on its positions. Working is "very difficult because there is a lot of damage, even inside the bases," Tenenti said. "Just last night, on the position of the Ghanaian peacekeepers, just outside, the blast was so strong that it destroyed some of the containers inside very badly." Hezbollah said on Saturday it launched a drone attack on a military base in north Israel's Haifa a day earlier. Hezbollah fighters at 8:00 pm on Friday launched "an air attack with a swarm of explosives-laden drones on an air defence base" in Haifa, a statement from the group said.
The Israeli military on Saturday warned residents of south Lebanon "not to return" to their homes as troops continued fighting Hezbollah gunmen in the area. Israeli forces continue to "target Hezbollah posts in or near your villages," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X. "For your own protection, do not return to your homes until further notice. Do not go south; anyone who goes south may put his life at risk." In a separate post, Adraee reiterated an earlier call for health workers and medical teams in southern Lebanon to avoid using ambulances, claiming they are being used by Hezbollah fighters. — AFP
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