As the holy day began from sunset on Friday, Israel faced a diplomatic backlash over what it acknowledged earlier in the day as a “hit” on a United Nations peacekeeping position in Lebanon.

Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were injured in the second incident in two days, the UNIFIL mission said on Friday.

The army said Israeli soldiers had responded with fire to “an imminent threat” about 50 meters from the UNIFIL post.

As Israel faced a chorus of condemnation from UN chief Antonio Guterres and Western allies, the military vowed to conduct a “thorough review.”

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, meanwhile, warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country, claiming the army uses “the houses” of locals and has military bases in residential areas.

Hezbollah has repeatedly announced that it has fired rockets into areas of northern Israel, where sirens sounded in several locations early Saturday.

UNIFIL peacekeepers are on the front lines of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese Health Ministry figures.

The latest incident occurred a day after two Indonesian soldiers were injured when, according to UNIFIL, tank fire hit a watchtower.

Sean Clancy, the chief of staff of the Irish army, said he did not believe the Israeli explanation of Friday’s incident.

“So from a military perspective this is not an accidental act,” said Clancy, whose country has troops in UNIFIL.

Guterres condemned the fire as “intolerable” and “a violation of international humanitarian law”, while the British government said it was “shocked” by reports of the injuries.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he “absolutely” asked Israel to stop shooting at UN peacekeepers, while French, Spanish and Italian leaders issued a joint statement expressing “outrage”.

French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his call for an end to the export of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, while saying UN peacekeepers had been “deliberately targeted”.

The incidents came more than two weeks after Israel’s war with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, in which Israeli warplanes carried out extensive strikes on the militants’ strongholds since September 23, hitting multiple civilian areas and deploying ground troops across the border.

Israeli and Hezbollah forces fought along the border on Friday, with Israeli airstrikes reported in southern and eastern Lebanon.

It marked a tense start to Yom Kippur. From sunset on Friday to nightfall on Saturday, Israeli markets are closed, flights halted and public transportation halted as observant Jews fast and pray on the Day of Atonement.

Diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza have so far failed, but Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a “complete and immediate ceasefire.”

Leaders from nine European countries around the Mediterranean also called on Friday for an end to fighting in Lebanon and Gaza.

Mikati said only the Lebanese army and peacekeepers should be deployed in the south of the country – the essence of the existing Security Council Resolution 1701 – and “Hezbollah agrees on this.”

US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein said the United States was working “non-stop” for a ceasefire.

“We want the whole conflict to end,” he told Lebanese television channel LBC from Washington.

The Lebanese army said an Israeli attack on one of its positions in southern Lebanon killed two of its soldiers on Friday.

Hezbollah is heavily armed and controls large parts of Lebanon, and successive Lebanese governments have failed to subdue the country.

The movement also fought against Israeli forces during Israel’s last invasion in 2006.

In Beirut, residents of a central part of the capital, which was targeted by twin Israeli airstrikes on Thursday evening, recovered their belongings and cleared rubble from devastated streets.

“There are a lot of families living here,” said Bilal Othman, explaining that many people had sought shelter there from southern Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold that has been ravaged by Israeli raids since last month.

“Are they telling us there is no longer a safe place in this country?” he said.

The Israeli attacks apparently targeted Hezbollah’s security chief Wafiq Safa, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said the attacks killed 22 people and injured more than 100.

Safa was close to Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack on southern Beirut last month.

Hezbollah began firing on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures, including hostages taken died in Israel. captivity.

Israel’s military campaign has wreaked havoc in Gaza, killing 42,126 people, mostly civilians, in the Hamas-held territory, according to Health Ministry data.

Late on Friday, Gaza’s civil protection agency said 30 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Jabalia, northern Gaza.

An AFP journalist in Gaza reported heavy artillery shelling, explosions and gunfire further south in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood on Saturday.

The co-head of a Japanese group of atomic bomb survivors that won the Nobel Peace Prize said the plight of children in Gaza reminded him of the plight of survivors after World War II.

“It’s just like Japan 80 years ago,” Toshiyuki Mimaki said in Tokyo.

burs-adp-jhb/rsc