Tensions in the Middle East region continued to be on the rise on Tuesday as strikes in Gaza and Lebanon claimed the lives of 15 and 18 people respectively.
The war on Gaza has been going on for more than a year, with 42,000 Palestinians losing their lives in Israel's offensive, as per local health authorities. Around 90 per cent of the 2.3 million population of Gaza has been displaced in the war.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah has also been attacking Israel since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, saying that its actions were in support of its ally -- Hamas. The Lebanese militant group had said that it won't stop striking Tel Aviv till a permanent ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
Middle East Tensions | Latest Developments
15 Killed In Southern Gaza
Israeli strikes in southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian health officials said.
The strikes were at two different places -- one hit a house in the southern town of Beni Suhaila and the other in the nearby town of Fakhari.
However, Israeli military has said that it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, accusing the militant group of taking shelter in civilian areas.
Meanwhile, Israel's ground and air campaign has been going on northern Gaza's Jabaliya town for more than a week now, with residents saying that families were sill trapped inside their homes and shelters.
18 Killed In Northern Lebanon
Fear of an all-out war continued to rise as the Lebanese Red Cross said that an Israeli airstrike in northern Lebanon killed at least 18 people.
A small apartment building in Aito village was hit by the strike on Monday, and was one of the northern-most strikes since Israel's invasion of Lebanon earlier this month.
The Hezbollah militant group is mainly present in the south of the country ad the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Over 400,000 Children Displaced In Lebanon: UN
The United Nations children's agency on Monday said that more than 400,000 children in Lebanon have been displaced in the past three weeks, warning of a "lost generation" in the small country which is in the middle of a war.
The fighting in Lebanon has led to 1.2 million people running from their homes, most of them fleeing to Beirut and elsewhere in the northern parts of the country.
The attacks escalated in the region after the pager and walkie-talkie blasts in Lebanon killed several Hezbollah members. Since then Israel has increased its campaign against the Iran-backed militnat group, launching a ground invasion into Lebanon.
UNICEF's deputy executive director for humanitarian actions, Ted Chaiban, visited the schools-turned-shelters and told The Associated Press, "What struck me is that this war is three weeks old and so many children have been affected."
"As we sit here today, 1.2 million children are deprived of education. Their public schools have either been rendered inaccessible, have been damaged by the war or are being used as shelters. The last thing this country needs, in addition to everything else it has gone through, is the risk of a lost," Chaiban said.
The UNICEF official said that on top of all this, the escalating war has also put over 100 primary healthcare facilities out of service, while 12 hospitals are either no longer working or partially functional. In the last three weeks, 26 water stations providing water to almost 350,000 people have been damaged, Chaiban said.
“What we must do is make sure that this stops, that this madness stops, that there's a cease-fire before we get to the kind of destruction and pain and suffering and death that we've seen in Gaza,” Chaiban said.
UNSC Concerned For UN Peacekeepers After Israeli Attack
The UN Security Council on Monday expressed "strong concern" as Israeli strikes wounded UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon during the intensified fighting in the region.
This was the first statement by the UN's most powerful body since Israel's attacks on the UNIFIL in Lebanon drew international condemnation.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Lacroix told reporters that Secretary-General Antonio Guetters confirmed on Monday that peacekeepers will remain in all their positions even as Israel has urged the peacekeepers to move five kilometers north during its ground invasion in Lebanon.
The Security Council statement -- read by Swiss UN Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl -- urged all parties “to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and UN premises.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for UNIFIL to heed Israel's warnings to evacuate on Sunday, accusing them of "providing a human shield" to Hezbollah.
“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” he said in a video addressed to the U.N. secretary-general, who has been banned from entering Israel.
4 Israeli Soldiers Killed In Drone Attack
Hezbollah's drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely injured seven others. The militant group the strike near Binyamina city was a retaliatory attack for the strikes on Beirut last week which killed 22 people.
Israel's national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. Hezbollah's strike came on the same day as the US announced that it would send a new air-defense system to Israel to help bolster protection against missiles, along with troops needed to operate it.
