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Israel said the target was Jalal Mustafa Hariri, a Hezbollah commander in charge of the Qana area.
The United Nations mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said its peacekeepers observed an Israeli tank firing at their watchtower near southern Lebanon’s Kfar Kela on Wednesday. Two cameras were destroyed, and the tower was damaged, UNIFIL said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the UNIFIL statement.
Israel has previously called on the UN to move members of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon out of the combat zone for their safety. UNIFIL says its troops have come under Israeli attack several times, though Israel has disputed accounts of those incidents.
Rescue workers carry people remains in Qana village, south Lebanon, one of two towns targeted by Israel on Wednesday.Credit: AP
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, on a visit to northern Israel near the border, said Israel would not halt its assault on Hezbollah to allow negotiations.
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“Hezbollah is in great distress,” he said according to a statement from his office. “We will hold negotiations only under fire. I said this on day one, I said it in Gaza and I am saying it here.”
Having long accused UNIFIL of failing in its mission to keep armed fighters out of the border area, Israel has adopted a more conciliatory tone earlier.
“The State of Israel places great importance on the activities of UNIFIL and has no intention of harming the organisation or its personnel,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
“Furthermore, Israel views UNIFIL as playing an important role in the ‘day after’ following the war against Hezbollah.”
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EU countries contributing to the peacekeeping mission held a conference call, and concluded that the mission is “essential and fundamental” and that only the UN can decide whether to end it, Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said.
Israel launched its ground and air campaign in Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah after a year during which the Iran-backed militant group fired across the border in support of the Palestinian militants Hamas in Gaza.
In recent weeks Israel has assassinated Hezbollah’s senior leadership and pushed into southern border towns, saying its aim is to make it safe for tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes in Israel’s north evacuated under Hezbollah fire.
It said it had “dismantled” a tunnel network used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces in the heart of a town near the border with Israel, publishing a video showing multiple explosions rocking a cluster of buildings. Lebanese officials said it was the small town of Mhaibib.
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Its operations in Lebanon have killed at least 2350 people over the last year, according to the Health Ministry, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced. The UN says a quarter of the country is under evacuation orders. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but includes hundreds of women and children.
Around 50 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in the same period, according to Israel.
Lebanon’s Mikati appeared to cast doubt on diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire.
“What can deter the enemy [Israel] from its crimes, which have reached the point of targeting peacekeeping forces in the south? And what solution is hoped for in light of this reality?” he said in a written statement.
Reuters, AP