A rescuer stands on the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Hanouiyeh, Lebanon, October 13, 2024. /CFP
A drone strike by Hezbollah on northern Israel killed four and wounded over 60 people on Sunday as the Israeli military expanded its bombardment of Lebanon and troops battled militants across the border.
The drone attack on a training base of the Golani Brigade in Binyamina, southern Haifa, marks a rare one in Israel, during which a drone bypassed Israel's air defense system and inflicted heavy casualties.
Later in the day, Hezbollah threatened Israel with more attacks if its offensive in Lebanon continued, saying the drone attack is nothing in comparison to what awaits if it decides to continue its aggression against Lebanon.
As combat raged between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon's south, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said they were again in the firing line. They said Israeli troops "forcibly" entered a UN position with two tanks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the force to withdraw from the area.
It is the latest of several incidents the UNIFIL has reported since Thursday, leaving five Blue Helmets injured.
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday said "attacks" against peacekeepers "may constitute a war crime."
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza, October 14, 2024. /CFP
Meanwhile, Israeli forces widened their raid into northern Gaza and tanks reached the north edge of Gaza City, pounding some districts of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and forcing many families to leave their homes.
Nine days into a major Israeli operation in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israeli strikes had killed around 300 Palestinians.
Israeli tank shelling on Sunday killed at least 22 Palestinians at a school sheltering displaced families in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.
"What's happening in northern Gaza is terrifying beyond words," acting UN aid chief Joyce Msuya said in a post on social media platform X.
"Attacks by Israeli forces are intensifying. Hospitals are forced to evacuate their patients. Essential supplies (are) running out. People forcibly displaced, cut off from aid, left to starve. The atrocities must end," she said.
"As the world is focused on Lebanon and possible Israeli strike against Iran, Israel is wiping out Jabalia," Nasser, a resident of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, told Reuters.
Palestinians use fire as light source as they struggle with power outages amid destroyed infrastructure due to Israeli attacks in Gaza, October 13, 2024. /CFP
Also on Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron discussed ways to compel Israel to stop its "genocide and crimes" in Gaza and Lebanon and support a "general de-escalation" in Gaza and Lebanon.
Amid the international call for a de-escalation, the Pentagon Pentagon said it would deploy a high-altitude anti-missile system and U.S. military to Israel to protect it from potential Iranian attack.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi warned on Sunday that the United States would be endangering its troops by deploying them to Israel to operate American missile defense systems.
Araghchi accused the U.S. of providing "unprecedented levels of military aid" to Israel, while sharing figures showing U.S. military assistance to Israel reaching $17.9 billion in 2024, marking a record high.
"The U.S. has been supplying Israel with record levels of arms," Araghchi stated.
(With input from agencies)