UN warns of catastrophe as Israel fights a two-front war

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warned Saturday against a "catastrophic" regional conflict as Israeli forces battled Hezbollah and Hamas militants on two fronts, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

Israel has faced a fierce diplomatic backlash over incidents in south Lebanon that saw five Blue Helmets injured.

Lebanon's health ministry said Saturday Israeli air strikes on two villages near Beirut killed at least nine people. Official media later reported an Israeli strike targeted a market in Nabatiyeh, an important southern city.

Israel had earlier told residents of south Lebanon not to return home, as its troops fought Hezbollah militants in a war that has killed more than 1,200 people since September 23, and forced more than a million others to flee their homes, Lebanese authorities say.

"For your own protection, do not return to your homes until further notice... Do not go south; anyone who goes south may put his life at risk," Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X.

Hezbollah said it fired missiles into northern Israel, where air raid sirens sounded and the military said it had intercepted a projectile.

The Iran-backed militants have stepped up their attacks on targets in and around Israel's main northern city of  Haifa.

Israel's military said Hezbollah fired about 320 projectiles into Israel over the weekend of Yom Kippur, which ended at nightfall.

It also said roughly 280 "terror targets" were attacked in Lebanon and Gaza over the same period.

For the third time, it declared a "closed military area" along the Lebanese border in northern Israel.

Such measures since late September have preceded ground operations inside Lebanon.

In an interview with AFP, Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, said he feared an Israeli escalation against Hezbollah could soon spiral out of control "into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone".

There was "no military solution", Tenenti said.

The UN mission said five peacekeepers have been injured during fighting in south Lebanon in two days, and Tenenti said "a lot of damage" had been caused to its posts there.

Around Israel, markets were closed and public transport halted as observant Jews fasted and prayed on Yom Kippur.

After the holiday, attention is likely to turn again to Israel's promised retaliation against Iran, which launched around 200 missiles at Israel on October 1.

Tehran said the barrage was retaliation for the killing of top militants and an Iranian general.

Israeli forces have been at war in Gaza since Hamas Palestinian militants on October 7 last year carried out the worst-ever attack on Israel.

Hezbollah, saying it was acting as a "support" front for Hamas, had been exchanging cross-border fire with Israel for almost a year.

But on September 30 Israel began a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon after intensifying air strikes on targets there.

- 'Deliberately targeted' -

On Friday, Israel faced criticism from the UN, its Western allies and others over what it said was a "hit" on a UN peacekeeping position in Lebanon.

Two Sri Lankan Blue Helmets were hurt in the second such incident in two days, UNIFIL said Friday.

Israel's military said soldiers had responded to "an immediate threat" around 50 metres (yards) from the UNIFIL base in Naqura, and pledged to carry out a "thorough review".

The Irish military's chief of staff, Sean Clancy, said it was "not an accidental act", and French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed the peacekeepers had been "deliberately targeted".

Both countries are troop contributors to UNIFIL.

Efforts to negotiate an end to the Lebanon war 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 "full and immediate ceasefire".

Jordan, however, called for tougher measures and an end to "impunity" for Israel. It said the UN's Chapter 7 must be enacted "to force" Israeli compliance with international law.

Macron repeated his call for a ceasefire and said Hezbollah must "immediately stop" attacking Israel.

In a show of support for Hezbollah -- which Iran arms and finances -- the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, on Saturday visited the site of an earlier deadly Israeli strike.

A source close to Hezbollah said the strike had targeted the group's security chief Wafiq Safa, but neither Hezbollah nor Israel has confirmed he was the target.

Ghalibaf's visit, a signal of Tehran's defiance, comes after Israel vowed to respond to Iran's second-ever direct attack, after an earlier missile barrage in April.

- Gaza deaths -

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The number includes hostages killed in captivity.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 42,175 people, a majority civilians, have been killed since Israel's military campaign began there.

Israeli operations in Gaza continue, with the army besieging an area around Jabalia in the north, causing more suffering for hundreds of thousands of people trapped there, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Adraee, the Israeli military spokesman, posted another evacuation warning on X Saturday for an area near Jabalia, saying it was "considered a dangerous combat zone".

"There is no safe place, neither in the south nor in the north -- everyone is at risk of death," Sami Asliya, 27, told AFP.

On Friday, Gaza's civil defence agency reported 30 people killed in Israeli strikes in the area, including on schools sheltering displaced people.

An AFP journalist in Gaza reported heavy shelling, explosions and gunfire Saturday further south in Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood.