A senior Hezbollah figure was reportedly wounded in Israel’s deadly strike on central Beirut — as Israel marked Yom Kippur under siege.
Wafiq Safa, the chief of the Hezbollah Liaison and Coordination Unit, was supposedly in critical condition following the Thursday evening strike, the Times of Israel said, citing a report from Sky News Arabia.
The Israeli military was targeting Safa when it launched a barrage on the Lebanese capital, which killed at least 22 people and wounded over 100 others.
Israel did not issue evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes and had not previously attacked the city, which is removed from Beirut’s southern suburbs where Hezbollah’s headquarters have been repeatedly bombed by Israel.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah started last year when the Iran-backed terror group opened fire on Israel in support of Hamas in the wake of Oct. 7.
The back-and-forth intensified in recent weeks, with Israel killing several of Hezbollah’s top leaders through bombing campaigns in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
On Friday evening, Jews across the Middle East began the holiday of Yom Kippur, or the annual day of atonement.
This year’s Yom Kippur — the most holy day in Judaism — got under way to the sound of warning sirens in central Israel, the Times of Israel reported.
A building in Herzliya was hit when two drones fired from Lebanon crossed into Israeli airspace, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
It was not clear if the building was hit by the drone or shrapnel from the interceptors, the Times of Israel noted.
One of the drones was shot down by a fighter jet, the IDF said. It was not immediately clear why the second drone was not shot down.
Parts of Herzliya were left without power from the impact, and emergency personnel were responding to at least one fire, Channel 12 said.
There were no initial reported injuries.
Footage posted online showed the drone flying over Herzliya before it made impact.
“The fact that two drones from Lebanon penetrated at least 100 km into the central area is very disturbing. The IDF says that the incident is being investigated, and the details are under review,” Israeli reporter Itay Blumenthal wrote in an update on X.
סיכום של סיכום האירוע: לקראת השעה 22 בלילה הופעלו התרעות בשרון על חדירת כלי טייס עויין. מדובר בשני כטב”מי נפץ שחדרו מלבנון. בצה”ל אומרים ששני הכלים היו במעקב של הבקרה האווירית מרגע חציית הגבול. כלי אחד יורט על ידי חיל האוויר, הכלי השני פגע ישירות במבנה בהרצליה. אין נפגעים בגוף,… https://t.co/jPXsLKWLzC
— איתי בלומנטל 🇮🇱 Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) October 11, 2024
Israel also entered the weekend under fire from the international community, as leaders across the globe expressed their outrage after the IDF confirmed that it injured two more UN peacekeepers on Friday.
The two Sri Lankan workers were wounded when explosions hit near the observation tower at the headquarters of the UN Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Naqoura.
One of the peacekeepers was hospitalized in reportedly critical condition, while the other received treatment on-site.
The incident was widely condemned by the Sri Lankan government.
France — which also heavily contributes to the peacekeeping effort — withdrew its Israeli ambassador in protest, while the Spanish prime minister called for an arms embargo on Israel.
The Israeli military said that soldiers in southern Lebanon identified a threat when they opened fire, resulting in the blast that wounded the UN workers.
The intended target was about 165 feet from the UNIFIL position, an initial review found.
UNIFIL claimed that an Israeli bulldozer also knocked over barriers at the UN’s position near the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon.
The Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt just one day after Israeli tank fire struck the same UNIFIL headquarters and injured two Indonesian peacekeepers.
At the time, UNIFIL accused Israeli soldiers of attacking a bunker at a base where peacekeepers were sheltering, resulting in damage to vehicles and a communication system.
Israel has warned peacekeepers in southern Lebanon to leave their positions near where Hezbollah is believed to have launched rockets into northern Israel over the last year.
On Thursday, the UN’s peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said 300 peacekeepers on the frontline were already temporarily moved to larger bases for their safety.
A statement from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned Israel’s call for the Lebanese people to rise up against Hezbollah.
“Recent language threatening Lebanese people as a whole and calling on them to either rise up against Hezbollah or face destruction like Gaza, risks being understood as encouraging or accepting violence directed against civilians and civilian objects, in violation of international law,” spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said Friday.
The ongoing conflict will “reverberate across many generations of people in the Middle East,” she insisted.
