By Maya Gebeily and Alexander Cornwell
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A senior Hezbollah official eluded an Israeli assassination attempt on Thursday in Beirut, three security sources said, as Israeli strikes there killed 22 people and the U.N. said its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon were in growing danger.
Wafiq Safa, who heads Hezbollah's liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies, was targeted by Israel on Thursday night but survived, the security sources said.
Earlier on Thursday, a Lebanese security source told Reuters that Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut targeted at least one senior official in Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The Israeli strikes hit a densely packed residential neighbourhood of apartment buildings and shops in the heart of Beirut. Israel had not previously struck the area, which is removed from Beirut's southern suburbs where Hezbollah's headquarters have been repeatedly bombed by Israel.
The number of casualties rose quickly, and as midnight approached the Lebanese Health Ministry reported 22 people killed and 117 wounded. Among the dead was a family of eight, including three children, who had evacuated from the south, according to a security source.
Reuters witnesses said at least one strike hit near a gas station and a thick column of smoke was visible. A large fire blazed in the background as rescue workers used torches to search the rubble for survivors, according to video broadcast by Hezbollah’s al-Manar television.
There was no immediate comment on the incident by Israel.
After Israel killed a series of top Hezbollah officials in recent weeks, including top leader Hassan Nasrallah, Safa was among the few surviving senior figures as the group's upper echelons struggled to reorganise.
The attempt to kill Safa, whose role merges security and political affairs, marked a widening of targeting of Hezbollah officials by Israel, which had so far focused on the group’s military commanders and top leaders.
Safa, whom Middle East media reports said was born in 1960, oversaw negotiations that led to a 2008 deal in which Hezbollah exchanged the bodies of Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 for Lebanese prisoners in Israel. The 2006 incident triggered a 34-day war with Israel.
Reuters also reported that in 2021 Safa warned the judge investigating Beirut's catastrophic 2020 port explosion, who sought to question several politicians allied with Hezbollah, that Hezbollah would remove him from the probe .
The Israeli military issued a new evacuation warning on Thursday night for Beirut's southern suburbs including specific buildings. Earlier in the day, Israel warned Lebanese civilians not to return to homes in the south to avoid harm from fighting.
PEACEKEEPERS 'IN JEOPARDY'
The United Nations' peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said two of its personnel were injured when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower on Thursday at the force's main headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura, hitting the tower and causing the peacekeepers to fall. There were no casualties in two other incidents, a U.N. source said.
The safety and security of the U.N.'s more than 10,400 peacekeepers in Lebanon are "increasingly in jeopardy" and operations have virtually halted since late September, U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the Security Council. That coincides with Israel's escalation of its conflict with Lebanon. UNIFIL called attacks on peacekeepers "a grave violation of international humanitarian law."
The White House said the U.S. was deeply concerned by reports that Israeli forces fired on U.N. positions and was pressing Israel for details.
Israel's military said in a statement its troops operated in the Naqoura area, "next to a UNIFIL base."
"Accordingly, the IDF instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, following which the forces opened fire in the area," Israel's statement said, adding it maintains routine communication with UNIFIL.
The peacekeepers are determined to remain at their posts despite Israeli attacks and orders by Israel's military to leave, the force's spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said.
Hezbollah said it had fired a missile salvo at Israeli forces on Thursday as they were trying to pull casualties out of the Ras al-Naqoura area, and they were directly hit.
In New York, Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said Israel was focused on fighting Hezbollah and recommends UNIFIL relocate 5 km (3 miles) north "to avoid danger as fighting intensifies". Reuters reported last week that the Israeli military had asked U.N. peacekeepers to prepare to move "as soon as possible, in order to maintain your safety".
Danon said "Israel has no desire to be in Lebanon, but it will do what is necessary" to drive Hezbollah from its northern border so 70,000 displaced residents can return to their homes in northern Israel.
The conflict erupted one year ago when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas at the start of the Gaza war. It has intensified dramatically in recent weeks, with Israel bombing Beirut's southern suburbs, the south and the Bekaa Valley, before sending in ground forces.
The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation in the region, awaiting Israel's response to an Iranian missile strike on Oct. 1.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday about potential Israeli retaliation against Iran, in a call both sides described as positive.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,169 people in Lebanon over the last year, the Lebanese government said in its daily update. The majority have been killed since Sept. 27, when Israel expanded its military campaign. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Hezbollah cross-border fire at Israel has killed 53 people over the same period, more than half of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Laila Bassam and Amina Ismail in Beirut, Tom Perry in London, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Clauda Tanios, Tala Ramadan and Ahmed Elimam in Dubai, Trevor Hunnicutt and Matt Spetalnick in Washington, John Irish in Paris; Writing by Tom Perry and Cynthia Osterman; Editing by Ros Russell, Mark Heinrich, Alexandra Hudson and Daniel Wallis)
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