Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Sunday broadcast an audio recording of its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, just two weeks after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in south Beirut.
Nasrallah, who was killed on September 27, said, “We count on you… to defend our people, our families, our nation, our values and our dignity and to defend this holy and blessed land and this honorable people.” For.” It said a recording was made when he addressed fighters from the Iran-backed group during a military maneuver.
Many other senior commanders of the movement have also been killed.
The Israeli military said that about 115 projectiles fired by Hezbollah had entered Israeli territory by Sunday afternoon.
Israel’s military said a Hezbollah fighter was captured emerging from a tunnel in southern Lebanon on Sunday, the first such announcement since the start of the ground offensive.
‘Shocking violation’
UN peacekeepers on Sunday accused Israeli troops of breaking into a gate and entering one of their bases in southern Lebanon.
This is the latest of several incidents reported by the UNIFIL mission since Thursday, with five Blue Helmets previously injured.
The peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) said, “At around 4:30 in the morning, while the peacekeepers were in shelters, two IDF (Israeli Army) Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate of the position in the Ramiya area and forcibly entered the position”. , the peacekeeping force said, before leaving after 45 minutes (UNIFIL).
On Saturday, several kilometers (miles) to the northeast, Israeli “troops stopped a vital UNIFIL logistics movement near Mas al-Jabal, preventing it from moving forward”.
“We have requested an explanation from the IDF for these shocking violations,” UNIFIL said.
The Israeli military later said that a tank “drove several meters into a UNIFIL post” during the “fire” and while attempting to evacuate wounded soldiers.
Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu had called on the UN chief to remove peacekeepers in southern Lebanon from harm’s way, after the mission rejected his request to step down.
He said the presence of peacekeepers “had the effect of providing a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists”.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned Netanyahu’s call, saying it “represents a new chapter in the enemy’s approach of non-adherence to international norms”.
UNIFIL, with about 9,500 troops, is in southern Lebanon under long-standing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which said only the Lebanese Army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed to south Lebanon.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called it “absolutely unacceptable” that UN troops “have been deliberately targeted by Israeli armed forces”.
Lebanon calls for ceasefire
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli warplanes also attacked a 100-year-old mosque in the village of Kafr Tibnit near the border, the NNA said.
“It was an important place because on special occasions families would gather in the square right next to it (the mosque),” Mayor Fuad Yassin told AFP.
Hamas escalated the ongoing war in Gaza with its deadliest attack on Israel to date on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
This number also includes hostages who died in captivity.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 42,227 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since Israel’s military campaign began. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.
In support of Hamas, Hezbollah began shelling northern Israel in October last year, leading to almost daily firing until the war escalated in late September.
Netanyahu vowed to fight Hezbollah until Israelis displaced by the violence return to their homes.
According to Lebanese officials, more than 1,200 people have been killed and one million others displaced in Lebanon since then.
Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a “complete and immediate ceasefire”.
In a visit to Baghdad ahead of Israel’s expected retaliation for Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel, Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Tehran is “fully prepared for a war situation”.
“We don’t want war,” he said.
The Pentagon later said it would deploy a high-altitude anti-missile system and its own US military contingent to Israel to help protect the ally from a possible Iranian attack.
In northern Gaza, Israeli forces have laid siege to Jabaliya for days, with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, saying the fighting is causing more suffering for the thousands trapped there.
“There is no hope, no water and no means of survival for more than a week,” said local resident Muhammad Abu Halima, 40.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
