The United Nations (UN) tonight expressed grave concern over “increased escalation across the Blue Line” following Israeli attacks on Lebanon, warning that the region is on the brink of disaster.
“We are very concerned about the increased escalation across the Blue Line, including the deadly attack we saw in Beirut today,” said a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric.
Calling on all parties to de-escalate and exercise maximum restraint, Dujarric emphasized:
“The region is on the brink of disaster. All efforts should be focused on urgently finding diplomatic activity.”
He confirmed that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) continues to “carry out its mandate in clearly extremely challenging conditions.”
Saying that UNIFIL chief Aroldo Lazaro was in constant communication with both the Israeli and Lebanese armies, Dujarric said the peacekeeping mission was working to “avoid any misjudgment along the Blue Line.”
The blue line is the demarcation line that separates Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights.
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert expressed concern on Friday about the latest escalation in the region.
“The afternoon attack in a densely populated area in the southern suburbs of Beirut is another alarming escalation,” Hennis-Plasschaert told social network X.
She added that this must be stopped, and that a diplomatic solution is still possible.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 12 people were killed and 66 injured, nine of them in critical condition, in an Israeli attack on a southern suburb of Beirut on Friday.
The official Lebanese National News Agency said that an apartment in one of the residential buildings in the Jamous area was hit in the attack.
The Israeli military claims to have killed Ibrahim Aqil, who it said was Hezbollah’s chief of operations and de facto commander of the Radwan forces, in a drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, 37 people were killed and more than 3,250 injured in a series of pager and walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon.
The Lebanese government and Hezbollah accused Israel of carrying out the attack. Hezbollah has vowed revenge, and Israel has not commented on the allegations.
The attacks sparked an escalation in Israel’s cross-border war with Hezbollah, which began after Israel launched a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 41,300 people, mostly women and children, AA writes.
