Israeli strikes kill at least 22 in central Beirut

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Nicaragua is breaking diplomatic relations with Israel over its war in Gaza, its Vice President Rosario Murillo announced on Friday.

Murillo said that the “repudiation” measure is not against the people of Israel but against its government.

CNN has contacted the Israeli consulate in Nicaragua for comment.

Context:?The announcement comes on the back of?statements?made by Nicaragua’s foreign minister Valdrack Ludwing Jaentschke Whitaker in a speech to the UN General Assembly in late September, where Whitaker denounced and condemned “the genocide that the Government of Israel and its ‘First World’ allies have committed, commit and continue to commit” across the Middle East.

In January, Nicaragua’s government applied to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to join the genocide lawsuit that South Africa filed against Israel in December last year.

Israel has rejected the genocide charges, arguing that the war against Hamas in Gaza is conducted in self-defense. Israel also maintains that it is not fighting the Palestinian people, and that its leaders have not shown any intent to commit genocide.

Thailand’s foreign ministry said it was “profoundly saddened” by the death of a Thai worker in northern Israel on Friday, according to a statement.

Earlier in the day Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency response service had reported that the Thai national had been killed in the Upper Galilee region after an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanon.

The Thai foreign ministry disputed that account, saying the death, and the injury of another of its nationals,?had resulted from “an explosion of dropped ammunition” without providing additional details.

The ministry added that its embassy in Israel was closely monitoring the condition of the injured worker and awaiting autopsy results to confirm the identity of the deceased before notifying the family.

The statement said the embassy was working to evacuate 10 additional Thai nationals from the kibbutz where the incident had occurred. It asked other Thai citizens having trouble leaving high-risk areas of Israel to contact the embassy for assistance.

The agriculture industry in Israel has employed thousands of Thai nationals to tend crops and work in dairies.

Thais made up the largest group of foreign nationals killed in the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023.?Most were workers on agricultural sites close to the perimeter fence?that separates Israel from Gaza.

In the months after the attack an estimated 10,000 farm workers left, according to the Israeli government.

Antony Blinken speaks at a press conference during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summits in Vientiane, Laos, on October 11.

US?Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke separately on Friday with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri as Israeli military operations in?the country?continue, including deadly strikes in Beirut Thursday.

According to State Department readouts of both calls, Blinken reiterated the US’ “commitment to a diplomatic resolution to the conflict across the Blue Line,” referring to the roughly 120-kilometer boundary between the two countries established by the United Nations in 2000 to ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

The top US diplomat “underscored enduring United States support for Lebanese institutions that can help stabilize the country, including the Lebanese Armed Forces,” and called for the country not to allow Iran or Hezbollah to “stand in the way” of Lebanon’s security, the readout from the Mikati call said.

In both calls, Blinken discussed the presidential vacancy in Lebanon and the need to fill?it?with a leader “that reflects the will of the people for a stable, prosperous, and independent Lebanon.”

Neither readout mentioned the deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut or the ongoing ground operations in the south of Lebanon.

Israel’s military says it is investigating after Lebanese officials blamed an Israeli strike for the killing of two of the country’s soldiers on Friday.

The Lebanese army said earlier that Israeli strikes targeting an army base in Kafra, southern Lebanon, killed two of its soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces now tells CNN that it is looking into the reported incident, and added that it was unaware of a Lebanese Armed Forces facility in the area:

Some background: While Israel is at war with Hezbollah — the Iran-backed paramilitary group that operates in southern Lebanon — its strikes have also killed more than 1,400 Lebanese civilians and at least three of the country’s soldiers, according to Lebanon’s government.

The IDF reiterated in its statement Friday that it is fighting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and not the state of Lebanon.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati earlier condemned the strike in Kafra as a part of a “persistent Israeli crime against Lebanon.”

The US government expanded sanctions on two Iranian energy sectors in an effort to cut off revenue that the US says Tehran is using to fund proxy groups and foment instability in the region.

Friday’s actions were taken in response to Tehran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this month, the Treasury Department said in a press release. It comes while the region is on edge about potential conflagration as Israel weighs its potential answer to that attack.

Remember: Hezbollah, which Israel is fighting in Lebanon, and Hamas, which it is fighting in Gaza, are two members of an axis of militant groups funded by Iran, which also operate in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Thousands of people are unable to leave northern Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp despite evacuation warnings from the Israeli military, due to gunfire and strikes around evacuation routes, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Friday.

CNN has previously reported incidents of evacuees from Jabalya coming under fire. One man said he and his family fled their home in Jabalya due to continuous bombing in the area, and that he and other civilians were shot at when they went back to retrieve supplies.

Five MSF staff members are currently trapped at the camp, according to a post on X from the organization, which is also known as Doctors Without Borders.

Haydar, a driver working for the organization who is trapped at the camp, was also quoted by MSF describing his fear of attempting to flee the dangerous area:

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment on allegations that its troops are firing near evacuation routes and that MSF workers are trapped.

Some background: The Israel Defense Forces launched its latest ground operation in Jabalya on Sunday, where it said it was encircling the area after seeing signs of Hamas rebuilding, despite a year of fighting and intense strikes on the area.

The IDF told residents across several parts of northern Gaza, including Jabalya, to evacuate on Monday, warning that it is “currently operating with great force in the area.”

Israel has been pounding the Lebanese capital of Beirut and other areas in the south of the country at an unprecedented intensity since escalating its war against the Iran-backed paramilitary group Hezbollah.

The Israeli strikes have often targeted crowded areas, leveling residential buildings, killing more than 1,400 people and displacing over 1 million others, according to the Lebanese government.

Israel’s military accuses Hezbollah of intentionally embedding itself within the civilian population, and says it is striking weapons stores and other key infrastructure for the militant group.

These were some of the latest scenes of destruction in Lebanon on Friday:

A view of the wreckage of a residential area following the Israeli airstrikes on the neighborhoods of Ras Al Naba'a and Basta Al Fawqa, in Beirut, Lebanon on October 11.

Lebanese women pass destroyed buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 11.

Residents remove the debris from their destroyed balcony at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 11.

Lebanese civil defense workers at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 11.

People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 11.

An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center in Kafra, south Lebanon, killed two soldiers and wounded three, according to the army.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned Israel for the attack, also criticizing the international community for what he said has been silence about “Israel’s crimes.”

While Israel is at war with Hezbollah — the Iran-backed paramilitary group that operates in southern Lebanon — its strikes have also killed at least three Lebanese soldiers and wounded five others, according to Lebanon’s government.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Israel has acknowledged it struck the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon?(UNIFIL) headquarters in Naqoura, southern Lebanon, on Friday, resulting in injuries to two peacekeepers who were transferred to hospitals in Lebanon.

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told CNN’s Becky Anderson that one of the peacekeepers was seriously injured in Friday’s explosion — the second to hit the headquarters in 48 hours — after being hit in the stomach by shrapnel.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Friday that its soldiers “identified an immediate threat against them” and “responded with fire toward the threat.”

“Hours before the incident, the IDF instructed UNIFIL personnel to enter into protected spaces and remain there. This instruction was in place at the time of the incident,” the IDF said.

Key context: Concern was already growing for the safety of peacekeepers in southern Lebanon after the UN accused Israeli troops of injuring two UNIFIL personnel in a separate incident on Thursday.

In a Friday statement, UNIFIL said several concrete walls used to shield a UN position near the Blue Line in the southwest village of Labbouneh collapsed when an Israeli armored bulldozer struck its perimeter, after which “IDF tanks moved in the proximity of the UN position.”

In a statement on X, the IDF said it had been notified that two peacekeepers were “inadvertently hurt during IDF combat against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.”

The injuries to UN troops have drawn?international condemnation, including from?France?and Ireland, both of which have contingents from their national armies in the Lebanon peacekeeping mission. On Friday,?France’s foreign ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador to Paris over the issue.

Palestinians carry a casualty in the aftermath of an Israeli strike at al-Remal clinic, which had been sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, on October 10.

More than 220 people have been killed in northern Gaza since the Israeli military launched renewed attacks there last weekend, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense and Ministry of Health.

The Israel Defense Forces escalated operations in the north of the enclave on Saturday, targeting what it says is Hamas’ renewed presence there.

Footage has emerged of upturned cars strewn across dusty streets, buildings leveled to rubble, and Palestinian residents desperately trying to flee the area — scenes reminiscent of the early days of the war, when Israel concentrated attacks in northern Gaza.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Thursday to discuss Israel’s military operations in Lebanon and “emphasized the importance of ensuring the safety of UNIFIL forces in the area,” according to the Pentagon.

UNIFIL,?the?United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Lebanon, said on Thursday that Israeli forces had fired on its positions and injured two members of the force. Austin’s call came after UN Under-Secretary General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix described hostilities between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon as “increasingly alarming,” and putting “peacekeepers at serious risk.”

In his call with Gallant, Austin emphasized the US commitment to a “diplomatic arrangement that safely returns both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the border,” and urged Israel to “pivot” from military operations to a diplomatic pathway “as soon as feasible,” the Pentagon said. More than 1,400 people have been killed by Israel’s operations in Lebanon since late last month, CNN has reported.

A Palestinian hospital director has warned that three health care facilities in northern Gaza are on the verge of running out of fuel, as Israeli forces move deeper into the besieged region.

Patients relying on ventilators in Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia “will die” if the Israeli military does not allow fuel to enter the northern parts of Gaza, Dr. Hussam Abu Saifiya, the director of the hospital, told CNN on Friday.

“There have been many attempts to bring fuel in, but the Israeli military have prevented that,” he said. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

A number of patients have been transferred to other hospitals in Gaza City, according to Abu Saifiya, after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and the Indonesian Hospital on Wednesday. CNN had reached out to the IDF for comment.

Palestinian health workers at Kamal Adwan Hospital can be seen delicately nursing a baby in the video. In another scene, young children connected to ventilators lie on blue hospital gurneys. Some have wounds, with thick bandages swaddled around their bodies. It is the only specialized neonatal intensive care unit in the area, according to the UK-based NGO, Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in northern Gaza, on September 11.

No food has entered northern Gaza since the start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of going hungry, the World Food Programme told CNN on Friday.

In August, approximately 700 hundred aid trucks entered northern Gaza.?In September, only 400 aid trucks entered, after commercial operations ceased at the Allenby Crossing on the border between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, the WFP added. No food trucks have entered northern Gaza in October, the WFP told CNN.

On Wednesday, the WFP said in a report that the aid entering the strip has plummeted to its lowest level in months, forcing the organization to stop the distribution of food parcels in October.

“Hunger remains rampant and the threat of famine persists,” WFP added.?“If the flow of assistance does not resume, one million vulnerable people will be deprived on this lifeline.”

Earlier this week, the UN’s OCHA said: “September saw the lowest volume of commercial and humanitarian supplies entering Gaza since at least March 2024.”

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military about the lack of food and aid entering the strip.

Israeli incursion in the north: The warning from the UN came against the backdrop of Israel’s renewed ground operation in northern Gaza on October 6, after seeing signs of Hamas rebuilding.

The military has issued fresh evacuation orders for residents in northern Gaza, adding it had expanded the scope of the “humanitarian area” in Al-Mawasi in the south.

Journalist Mohammad al-Sawalhi contributed to this report from Gaza.

Two of central Gaza’s main bakeries have been shut down for three days, according to CNN footage and bakery workers, as humanitarian agencies warned of blocked access to the Palestinian enclave.

Al-Banna Bakery and Zadna Bakery in Deir al-Balah, both supported by the WFP, have halted operations due to a lack of flour and fuel, bakery workers and residents told CNN. CNN video from the bakeries shows bare conveyor belts and shelves emptied of stock. Parents in the area said they cannot find enough food to feed their children, while local staff trying to support their families are losing wages.

Ahmad Abed, a Palestinian staffer at Al-Banna Bakery in central Gaza, told CNN that at least 50 employees rely on wages from the facility, which was forced to close down amid flour and fuel shortages.

“I am the head of a family of six. The day I work, I can feed my family. The day I don’t, we don’t eat,” said Ahmad Abed, an employee at Al-Banna Bakery. “People are chasing flour, and we go to bakeries searching for where bread is available.”

Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network, told CNN that the depletion of flour and other production materials has led to the closure of essential bakeries that produce bread.

Bread remains the number one staple food for Palestinians and has become a crucial basic necessity since the war started just over a year ago.

Haitham Badri, a father in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, said he cannot find enough flour to make bread for his children.

Palestinian women mourn near the bodies of relatives killed in an Israeli airstrike, outside the morgue in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza, on June 10.

At least 42,126 Palestinians have been killed and another 98,117 injured since Israel launched its war in Gaza on October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave.

In the past 24 hours, Israeli strikes in the strip killed at least 61 people and wounded 231 people, the ministry reported on Thursday.

Anwar Gargash, Diplomatic adviser to the United Arab Emirates president, attends the opening ceremony of the Summit on Peace in Ukraine at the Buergenstock Resort in Stansstad near Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 15.

The United Arab Emirates is “seriously concerned” as the regional war expands and believes it is imperative that the US play an effective role to diffuse tensions, a top official told CNN.

The?UAE?is the Middle East’s commercial and tourism hub and has strong economic ties with both Israel and Iran.

He said that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian made “encouraging statements” at the United Nations General Assembly last month, but those statement have been “undermined by the current escalation.”

Pezeshkian said at the United Nations that his country is ready to?engage with the West?on its disputed nuclear program, and said Iran was?ready to lay down its arms?if Israel did the same.

Key stakeholders: Both the?UAE?and Iran are major oil producers and Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-third of the world’s seaborne oil trade passes. US President Joe Biden has cautioned against?an Israeli strike on Iranian oil interests. Tehran has in previous years warned that if it cannot sell its own oil, then it won’t allow others in the region to do so either.

A disruption to oil production from Middle Eastern states could lead to global oil prices skyrocketing. Gargash also stressed the urgent need for a ceasefire in in Gaza and Lebanon.

The Israeli military announced on Friday that it killed a commander in the Hezbollah Radwan Forces’ anti-tank missile unit, in the Lebanese area of Meiss El Jabal, as Israel’s ground incursion in the country’s south rages on.

In a statement, the Israeli military said Araeb el Shoga “was responsible for numerous anti-tank missile attacks on the area of Ramot Naftali in northern Israel.”

Israeli forces “also identified and struck a launcher that was ready to fire toward Israeli territory and soldiers” and “struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities,” the military added. CNN cannot independently verify the statement.

Elsewhere in Lebanon: Israeli forces also intensified an aerial campaign in the Lebanese capital late Thursday, killing at least 22 people and wounding at least 117 others, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The strikes in the densely populated upper Basta neighborhood marked the single deadliest Israeli attack in central Beirut since Israel’s 34-day-war in 2006, which killed 1,100 people in Lebanon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during their meeting on October 11, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was meeting his Iranian counterpart?Masoud Pezeshkian?for the first time on Friday, as relations between the two sanctioned nations warm and the Middle East braces for?Israel’s response?to Tehran’s largest-ever missile attack last week.

The meeting at a regional summit in Ashgabat, the capital of the Central Asian country Turkmenistan, also comes against a backdrop of closer military ties between Iran and Russia’s military in recent years, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Iran has supplied thousands of “Shahed” attack drones to Russia, and according to US officials, built a drone factory in Russia. Iran also recently transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to use in the war against Ukraine,?CNN reported?in September, marking a significant escalation in the country’s support for Moscow.

“Since Ukraine, the two countries have been more equal in terms of both needing each other and relying each other on specific issues. And that, I think, has been seen as beneficial from the Iranian side,” said Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, senior analyst and associate fellow, at UK think tank Chatham House.

Moscow and Tehran have a de facto military alliance in the region to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Analysts say the countries have found further common ground as they are increasingly isolated by global sanctions.

Read the full story here.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken deboards an airplane on arrival at El-Alamein on Egypt's northern coast on August 20, as part of his latest Middle East tour to push forward talks aiming to end the Gaza war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken?said the US would “engage intensely” to prevent a wider conflict in the Middle East as concerns grow that Israel’s wars with Iranian proxies could escalate into a full-scale regional war.

Blinken also said he had “a real concern about the inadequacy of the assistance” reaching people in Gaza, stressing the US is “directly engaged with Israel on the imperative of addressing the humanitarian needs” in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

His remarks come after the US ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday that Israel must urgently address the “catastrophic conditions” in Gaza and that “actions by the Israeli government to limit the delivery of aid”?would?intensify suffering.

On Lebanon: Blinken emphasized the need for a “diplomatic solution in Lebanon,” amid an Israeli ground incursion in the south of the country and intensified airstrikes as it fights Hezbollah.

He also expressed support for a stronger Lebanese state emerging from the conflict.

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on October 1.

Israel’s security cabinet did not reach a decision on how to respond to Iran’s missile attack following discussions on the matter, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday.

The gaps between the US and Israeli positions were narrowing, the source added.

US President Joe Biden has said Israel’s retaliation for the October 1 Iranian missile barrage should be “proportional.”

This post has been updated.?

Two Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

The strike in the Tulkarm area killed Muhammad Abdullah, head of the Nur Shams branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and another unnamed militant, according to an Israel Defense Forces statement Friday.

In a statement, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the killing of Muhammad Iyad Muhammad Abdullah, 20, and Awad Jamil Saqr Omar, 31, “as a result of the occupation’s bombing near Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm.”

A view from the surroundings of damaged Al-Awda Hospital after Israeli attacks, in Beit Lahia, Gaza on May 18.

A United Nations inquiry has accused Israel of?carrying out a “concerted policy” of destroying the health care system in Gaza?during its year-long conflict with Hamas in attacks it said amount to war crimes.

Israel’s actions in the besieged Palestinian enclave?“constitute the war crimes of willful killing and mistreatment and the crime against humanity of extermination,” the commission said in a statement Thursday.

The Israeli attacks resulted in “fuel, food, water, medicines and medical supplies not reaching hospitals, while also drastically reducing permits for patients to leave the territory for medical treatment,” it said.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the Israeli foreign ministry about the report, but has not yet heard back.?Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of operating in and around health care facilities in the Palestinian enclave – using them for military operations, including as command centers, weapons stores and to hide hostages.

Israel has released footage they say is evidence of those Hamas operations. The videos do not offer definitive proof, and Hamas has denied the claims.

“Our forces on the ground know where these hospitals are, and nodes are taken into account when they’re operating,” a legal adviser to the IDF told CNN earlier?this year about the process of approving strikes against targets near hospitals. “But at the end of the day, as long as Hamas continues to use these hospitals and facilities for the military operations, and our aim is to defeat Hamas militarily, there is absolutely no choice but to go there.”

The report also accused Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups of committing war crimes of “torture, inhuman or cruel treatment, rape and sexual violence” for their treatment of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza. It also investigated “institutionalized mistreatment” of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

In a statement accompanying the 24-page report, which does not have the force of law, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Israel “must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction” in Gaza.

As part of the report, UN experts investigated the killing of 5-year-old Palestinian girl?Hind Rajab, who made headlines in late January after a recording emerged of her pleading to emergency workers to?rescue her and her family after they became trapped in their car due to Israeli shelling.

Despite an ambulance arriving at the scene while the girl was still alive, the presence of Israeli security forces effectively “prevented access,” meaning the bodies of Rajab’s relatives “could not be retrieved from their bullet-ridden car until 12 days after the incident,” the report said.

The report “determined on reasonable grounds that the Israeli Army’s 162nd Division” which operated in the area at the time is “responsible for killing the family of seven, shelling the ambulance and killing the two paramedics inside.”

The incident was just one of several alleged attacks on health care in Gaza, amid broader wartime conditions.

The report will be presented to the UN General Assembly?on October 30.

The commission previously alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, and that Israel’s actions also amounted to crimes against humanity.

Workers unload humanitarian aid from a Turkish military ships, in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, on October 9.

Up to 2.5 million people need “urgent humanitarian food assistance” in Lebanon as Israel’s war with Hezbollah rages in the country, according to?the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

In a report published Thursday, USAID – citing its Famine Early Warning Systems Network – said the number of people requiring help had risen to up to 40% of the population.

Several regions are expected to remain at “crisis” level until January, including the capital Beirut and?its?southern suburbs.

Israel has pummeled Lebanon with an unprecedented airstrike campaign, killing more than 1,500 people, injuring more than 8,000 and?displacing more than 1 million people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

A quarter of Lebanese territory is under Israeli military displacement orders, according to the United Nations, a sign of the growing scale of the humanitarian crisis and expansion of Israel’s war against Hezbollah.

People gather in front of destroyed buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, on October 10.

An entire residential building was leveled in a deadly Israeli strike on central Beirut Thursday, a Lebanese security source told CNN, as Israel reportedly targeted a senior Hezbollah official in a densely populated neighborhood.

At least 22 people were killed and at least 117 wounded in Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital Thursday night, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Israel has not publicly claimed Thursday’s strikes or confirmed any targets.

Here’s what we know:

Indonesia blasted Israel on Friday for what it called “deliberate attacks” that?injured?two of its UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Israel’s actions “represent a blatant attempt to spread terror on the ground to intimidate both the peacekeeping mission and international community,” Indonesia’s mission to the United Nations said in a post on X after the peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were wounded Thursday by Israeli tank fire in the southern city of Naqoura.

Addressing the UN Security Council on Thursday, Indonesia’s UN ambassador Hari Prabowo said Israel’s actions were unacceptable.

“Let me be clear: those who stand by the cause of peace will not be afraid of bullies and perpetrator of genocide,” Prabowo said, according to Jakarta’s mission to the UN.

The Israel Defense Forces earlier said its troops were operating “in the area of Naqoura, next to a UNIFIL base” and that “the IDF instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, following which the forces opened fire in the area.” The Israeli military has also accused Hezbollah of operating near UN peacekeeping positions in southern Lebanon.

Indonesia’s criticism follows international condemnation of Israel over several recent attacks on UN peacekeeping positions, including heavy?criticism?from France, Ireland and Italy, which have contingents from their national armies in the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

On Thursday, the UN peacekeeping chief said the situation in southern Lebanon is “increasingly alarming,” with peacekeepers “at serious risk.”

What is UNIFIL??The UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon was established by the UN Security Council?in 1978, following the Israeli invasion of the country’s south. The agency established?the Blue Line?– an area spanning 120 kilometers along southern Lebanon – in 2000, to ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Israel should take “all feasible steps” to protect?civilians during its military operations, a US State Department spokesperson said, after deadly Israeli strikes hit the Lebanese capital on Thursday.

The United States supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran-backed Hezbollah, but “how it does so matters,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“We continue to press Israel to take all feasible steps to protect civilians throughout its operations, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut,” they added.

The death toll from the Israeli strikes in central Beirut has risen to at least 22, with at least 117 people wounded, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.

A senior Hezbollah official was the target, according to a source in the militant group and Israeli media reports. Wafiq Safa, leader of Hezbollah’s liaison unit, survived the assassination attempt, the Hezbollah source told CNN. Israel has not publicly claimed Thursday’s strikes or confirmed any targets.

When the winner of the?Nobel Peace Prize?is announced in Sweden on Friday, Israel and Lebanon will be among more than 50 countries experiencing armed conflict.

For that reason – and to send a message that “the institutions of world order seem incapable” of reducing conflict – the Nobel Committee should withhold this year’s peace prize, Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told CNN.

As well as war in the Middle East, conflict is raging in Ukraine, Sudan, West Africa, Haiti, Myanmar and elsewhere, said Smith, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the peace prize.

His “modest suggestion” is that the committee withhold the honor this year to highlight “the deficiency in world politics at the moment.”

The Nobel Peace Prize has been withheld on 19 previous occasions, including during World War I and II, but has been awarded each year since 1972.

While there are many worthy potential winners, not giving out the prize would “send a very powerful message,” said Smith.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix speaks during an interview at the UN headquarters in New York City on May 21.

Concerns are mounting for the safety of peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, a senior United Nations official warned on Thursday, after the UN accused?Israeli troops of injuring two UNIFIL personnel.

Briefing the UN Security Council, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix described the situation in southern Lebanon as an “increasingly alarming” one which is putting UN “peacekeepers at serious risk.”

The IDF has said its troops were operating “in the area of Naqoura, next to a UNIFIL base” and that “the IDF instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, following which the forces opened fire in the area.”

The Israeli military has also accused Hezbollah of operating near UN peacekeeping positions in southern Lebanon.

UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said the two peacekeepers, both from Indonesia, remain hospitalized, but their injuries are not serious.

The incident drew condemnation from several countries with military contingents in the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

France expressed its “deep concern” after the attack, saying it was “awaiting explanations from the Israeli authorities.”

Irish foreign minister, Micheál Martin described the IDF’s “targeting & firing on UNIFIL positions” as “reprehensible” and “unacceptable.”

What is UNIFIL??The UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon was established by the UN Security Council?in 1978, following the Israeli invasion of the country’s south. The agency established?the Blue Line?– an area spanning 120 kilometers along southern Lebanon – in 2000, in order to ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.

On Wednesday, a UNIFIL spokesperson?told CNN?that Israeli invasions were ongoing “a bit everywhere in the proximity” of the Blue Line, as the Israeli military expands operations across southern Lebanon.

Iran will support its proxy groups “however necessary” and will stand “strongly by the resistance,”?Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera in an interview aired Thursday.

Iran backs the two main groups fighting Israel: Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on Beirut, two months after killing Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

In response, Iran?fired dozens of missiles on Israeli cities?last week. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to respond to the attack.

Over the past weeks, Iranian officials have shuttled between neighboring Arab countries for consultations in anticipation of an Israeli attack. Araghchi met Qatari officials in Doha on Thursday, a day after meeting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh.

Araghchi told Al Jazeera that communication channels with the United States remain open through third parties.