An Israeli attack on a vehicle near a checkpoint in the southern city of Sidon on Thursday killed three people and wounded soldiers and UN peacekeepers, the Lebanese army said.
“The Israeli enemy targeted a car as it was passing through the Awali checkpoint, the main northern entrance to Sidon,” the army said.
Except for a few limited attacks, the Sunni Muslim-majority city of Sidon has been relatively spared from the deadly airstrikes targeting southern Lebanon in Israel’s war against the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
The army said three people were killed in the attack, all of whom were passengers in the targeted vehicle.
According to the army, members of UNIFIL’s Malaysian contingent as well as three Lebanese soldiers stationed at the checkpoint were also injured.
“A convoy bringing newly arrived peacekeepers to southern Lebanon was passing through Sidon when a drone strike occurred nearby,” UNIFIL peacekeeping forces said.
“Five peacekeepers were slightly injured and treated at the scene by the Lebanese Red Cross. They will remain in their positions,” it said, calling on the warring parties to “refrain from actions that endanger peacekeepers or civilians.” requested.”
UNIFIL has thousands of peacekeepers
Lebanon’s official national news agency said the UNIFIL vehicle was on “the same lane” during the attack, which caused “minor injuries” to the UN peacekeepers.
An AFP correspondent in the area saw the charred, damaged remains of the targeted vehicle, just meters from the army post.
The correspondent saw UNIFIL peacekeepers gathering on the sidewalk near the checkpoint after the raid, some of them bloodied and injured, while paramedics were attending to their injuries.
The UNIFIL convoy included several buses, the correspondent said.
In recent weeks, Israeli raids have intensified on Haret Saida, a densely populated Sidon suburb that has a sizeable population of Shia Muslims.
Israel has also increasingly started targeted attacks on vehicles. A woman was killed in an Israeli strike on Thursday that targeted a car on a major road linking the capital Beirut with the Bekaa Valley and Syria, a security source told AFP.
Lebanon’s National News Agency earlier reported that “an enemy drone targeted a car in Araya,” adding that the attack caused the route to be blocked to vehicular traffic.
This highway connects Beirut to the Syrian capital Damascus through the Lebanese mountains.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
