Updates: Israeli attacks on UN in Lebanon draw international condemnation

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You can watch our video on how Israel is attacking UN peacekeepers in Lebanon here.

You can read our explainer on why the international community considers these attacks a big deal here.

Finally, you can watch the latest episode of The Stream, which looks at how the world has changed after a year of genocide in Gaza here.

But before that, let’s have a recap of the latest developments:

• At least 56 people have been killed in Gaza in several Israeli strikes, including at least 20 in Jabalia refugee camp.
• Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least seven people were killed in three different Israeli air strikes in the Sidon district.
• Berlin has demanded clarification after an Israeli strike killed six people in a centre in Lebanon supported by German organisations.
• At least 100 rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanon in a single hour, the Israeli military said.
• The US has imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and petrochemical sectors in response to Tehran’s missile attack on Israel on October 1, the Treasury Department said.
• Thousands of people remain trapped in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp as Israeli forces continue to attack the area, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said.
• France, Italy and Spain condemned in a joint statement the recent targeting of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, by the Israel army.
• The Israeli military says it was “conducting a thorough review” to determine details of attacks on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon after mission members were injured on consecutive days.

Lebanon’s prime minister wasn’t the only one who spoke to Antony Blinken. Nabih Berri, the Lebanese House speaker, also spoke to Blinken for about 40 minutes.

The Lebanese government is trying to push any diplomatic means to implement a ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel.

The US State Department did issue a statement following these calls. It said the secretary reiterated the United States’ commitment to a diplomatic resolution to the conflict across the Blue Line.

Essentially, they are referring to Resolution 1701, which was implemented after the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel and essentially left a buffer zone that would only allow UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to operate.

So, if they’re calling for the reimplementation of this, it means pushing Hezbollah back at 30 kilometres between the border and the Litani River and also Israel, respecting the sovereignty of Lebanon.

But it is, of course, going to be very difficult to implement.

Hezbollah has had fighting words. They say they haven’t used their entire weapons arsenal. They are ready to defend the country.

Israel has been massing troops along the border. They’ve added two more divisions in the past week or so, and they’ve been trying to push on many fronts and continuously bombarded the country.

It’s been just over a day since Israel carried out its most deadly strike yet on the Lebanese capital, hitting a central area, killing at least 22 people and injuring over 100.

Watch our video to learn what happened:

Air raid sirens blared throughout the Tel Aviv area as drones launched from Lebanon made their way towards central Israel. That’s according to Israel’s army.

There were very dramatic videos that showed residents who were concerned as they saw these drones, one drone in particular, cross overhead, and there are questions still about what exactly hit a building in a suburb of Tel Aviv called Herzliya.

There is a video showing that the building was hit, but there were conflicting reports in various Israeli media outlets as to what exactly caused that damage.

Some suggested that perhaps it was one of the drones, others that it was fragments of those drones after being intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems.

Other reports still wondered if perhaps that damage might have been caused by an Israeli interceptor missile that had tried to intercept that drone as it was over Herzliya.

This is something that’s going to be causing a lot of concern. The Israeli army has said that the incident is under investigation, so we expect to hear more from the Israeli army as to how exactly these drones got there at a time of heightened concern.

We’ve heard these past few days of more rockets being launched from Lebanon towards either central or northern Israel – something that’s going to make Israelis question just perhaps how vulnerable they are at this particular time.

Hezbollah has warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country, accusing it of operating in civilian areas.

“The Israeli enemy army uses the homes of [Israeli] settlers in some settlements [towns and cities]” in north Israel and has military bases “inside settlement neighbourhoods in major occupied cities such as Haifa, Tiberias, Acre,” it said in a statement in Arabic and Hebrew.

“We warn the settlers from being near these military gatherings in order to preserve their lives.”

This is similar to the rhetoric used by Israel in the near-nightly evacuation orders it issues on areas of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, in which it tells civilians that Hezbollah uses them as human shields.

At least six people were killed in an Israeli air strike in the Dar-es-Salaam meeting centre in Lebanon, which is supported by German organisations, Germany’s Foreign Ministry has said.

“We are in contact with the Israeli government and await a full clarification,” it added.

The Israeli military says the unmanned aerial vehicle fell in an open area, and no injuries have been reported.

This incident comes after two drones penetrated the airspace of Tel Aviv, Israel, a short while ago. One of them was intercepted, the Israeli military said, while the other damaged a building in the city and caused a small power outage.

The Golan Heights, a 1,200-square-kilometre (463-square-mile) plateau, is Syrian territory that Israel occupied in 1967 after the Six-Day War before annexing it in 1981, a move the United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned.

[Najib Mikati] said that there needs to be a commitment to return to UN Security Council 1701 resolution that saw an end to the war in 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel.

What that resolution asks for is that Hezbollah move back north of the Litani River and that Israel respect this country’s sovereignty.

That is one of the main diplomatic pushes that the Lebanese government is fighting for to try and bring a lull in this conflict that is escalating to unprecedented levels.

The caretaker, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, said that the international community is complicit and that Israel’s actions on the ground within Lebanon are crimes that are being committed against the Lebanese people.

So, a diplomatic effort needs to be made to try to end this conflict, or at least a ceasefire should be held as soon as possible.

Israeli forces are attacking UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. Why are the soldiers there, and why does Israel see them as targets?

Al Jazeera’s Virginia Pietromarchi has some answers:

Editor’s Note: The report says tanks were positioned near a UNIFIL base. It should say military vehicles, including tanks, were positioned near a UNIFIL base.

At least 15 people were killed in an Israeli air strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza, according to an Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent on the ground.

Dozens were injured, the report said, adding that some ambulances were not able to held in the rescue efforts due to fuel shortages.

This comes after medical sources said more than 40 people were killed in air raids across the Strip.

The US has imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and petrochemical sectors in response to Tehran’s missile attack on Israel on October 1, the Treasury Department has said.

“Today’s sanctions target Iranian efforts to channel revenues from its energy industry to finance deadly and disruptive activity — including development of its nuclear program, the proliferation of ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, and support to regional terrorist proxies — with dangerous consequences for the region and the world,” Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles against Israel in what was the second direct strike on its enemy this year alone. The barrage of rockets was in response to the killing of Iran’s allies and members of its forces, including Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel has pledged to respond to Iran’s attack leaving the region on edge. US President Joe Biden said Israel should avoid targeting Iran’s oil field amid fear of petrol price hikes.