UN mission in Lebanon is hit again by explosions

nternational Desk News :: The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said new explosions hit its headquarters Friday, injuring two peacekeepers a day after Israeli forces targeted the same position and struck central Beirut.

Earlier Friday, cross-border fire from Lebanon killed a man from Thailand who was working on a farm in north Israel.

Lebanon’s crisis response unit announced Friday that 60 people were killed and 168 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,229 killed and 10,380 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, after a year of exchanges of fire between the two rivals. Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas’ ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

It’s been a full year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.