The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Wednesday that Israeli forces fired multiple bursts of machine-gun fire near a UN peacekeeping patrol along the UN-demarcated Blue Line, causing no casualties.
The Israeli military later said that the shots were not aimed at the peacekeepers but at a suspect.
UNIFIL said peacekeepers in vehicles were conducting a routine patrol near the village of Sarda on Tuesday when an Israeli Merkava tank opened fire.
“One burst of 10 rounds was fired over the patrol, followed by four additional 10-round bursts landing nearby,” the statement said.
The mission said the peacekeepers immediately contacted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) through UNIFIL liaison channels to demand an end to the shooting.
“Attacks on or near peacekeepers constitute a serious violation of Resolution 1701,” the statement said, urging Israel to halt what UNIFIL called aggressive behaviour toward forces mandated to maintain stability along the frontier. UN Resolution 1701 ended the 2006 Lebanon War.
UNIFIL noted that both the tank and the patrol were located inside Lebanese territory at the time.
Israel: Warning shots by soldiers at suspect
The IDF said in a statement that soldiers had identified a suspect approaching an Israeli base and fired warning shots at him.
“During the warning fire, UNIFIL forces contacted the IDF claiming they heard gunfire in their direction. It was clarified to them that the fire was not aimed at them or in their direction, but at the approaching threat in the area,” the IDF said.
The military emphasized that it was not acting against UN troops and would continue to cooperate extensively with their representatives.
Repeated violations of ceasefire
The incident comes amid a period of Israeli military activity along the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel has been carrying almost daily strikes against pro-Iranian Hezbollah positions.
Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in November 2024 after more than a year of cross-border fire, though both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the deal since then.
A key element of the ceasefire agreement is the disarmament of Hezbollah, a politically sensitive process that has been sought unsuccessfully in Lebanon for decades.
Israel and its northern neighbour remain formally in a state of war. Lebanon’s president recently signalled openness to new negotiations with Israel.
UNIFIL reiterated that its personnel remain committed to preventing further deterioration and maintaining channels of communication between the parties.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Wednesday that Israeli forces fired multiple bursts of machine-gun fire near a UN peacekeeping patrol along the UN-demarcated Blue Line, causing no casualties.
“Attacks on or near peacekeepers constitute a serious violation of Resolution 1701,” the statement said, urging Israel to halt what UNIFIL called aggressive behaviour toward forces mandated to maintain stability along the frontier. UN Resolution 1701 ended the 2006 Lebanon War.
According to a statement, peacekeepers in vehicles were conducting a routine patrol near the village of Sarda on Tuesday when an Israeli Merkava tank opened fire.
“One burst of 10 rounds was fired over the patrol, followed by four additional 10-round bursts landing nearby,” the statement said.
The mission said the peacekeepers immediately contacted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) through UNIFIL liaison channels to demand an end to the shooting.
UNIFIL noted that both the tank and the patrol were located inside Lebanese territory at the time.
The incident comes amid a period of Israeli military activity along the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel has been carrying almost daily strikes against Pro-Iranian Hezbollah positions.
Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in November 2024 after more than a year of cross-border fire, though both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the deal since then.
A key element of the ceasefire agreement is the disarmament of Hezbollah, a politically sensitive process that has been sought unsuccessfully in Lebanon for decades.
Israel and its northern neighbour remain formally in a state of war. Lebanon’s president recently signalled openness to new negotiations with Israel.
UNIFIL reiterated that its personnel remain committed to preventing further deterioration and maintaining channels of communication between the parties.
“They punished ordinary people. This is collective punishment.”
It’s been more than nine months since 54-year-old Nehaya al-Jundi last saw her home in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nur Shams, in the occupied West Bank, after being forced to evacuate by the Israeli military.
“They punished the infrastructure, the institutions and people of the camp.”
In a café in nearby Tulkarm, Nehaya speaks to the BBC about her family’s panicked flight, as Israeli troops stormed into the camp in early February.
For two days Nehaya watched and listened in terror as military bulldozers razed the area around her house.
“We were besieged inside our house and couldn’t leave,” she recalls, describing how power, water and internet connections were all severed.
Eventually, on 9 February, Nehaya escaped with her 75-year-old husband, Zaydan, and their teenage daughter Salma.
“When we got out, I was shocked by the damage in the area,” she says.
Nehaya al-Jundi was forced out of her house in Nur Shams in February [BBC]
The Israeli military launched “Operation Iron Wall” in late January, sending troops and armour into Nur Shams and two other refugee camps in the northern West Bank, to tackle Palestinian armed groups it said were responsible for attacks on Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers.
The operation followed a largely unsuccessful attempt by the Palestinian Authority to quell the activities of local gunmen, many of them affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in the parts of the West Bank where it governs and controls security.
By the end of February, the three camps had been all but emptied in the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel occupied the territory in the 1967 Six Day War.
The Israeli military says it needed to demolish buildings in Nur Shams and two other camps to “open new access routes” [EPA]
In Jenin, where the largest of the three camps dominates the western side of the city, we hear similar stories of terrified flight and long months of dislocation.
“We stayed three days in the house without power or water,” says 54-year-old Nidal Abu Nase, a development consultant and freelance book editor.
“The shooting never stopped.”
When the chance to escape finally arrived, Nidal’s family left with little more than their clothes, thinking they would soon be back.
“I never managed to get home to collect my stuff,” he says.
Nidal Abu Nase has been living all his life in the Jenin refugee camp [BBC]
Ten months on, Nidal and at least 32,000 residents of the three camps still don’t know when they will be allowed to return to their homes.
When that moment finally comes, many will find they no longer have homes to go back to.
Human Rights Watch says Israel has demolished 850 homes and other buildings across all three camps.
Other estimates rate the extent of the damage much higher.
In a report published earlier this week, HRW said Israel’s forced, prolonged evacuations and the associated destruction “amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
“The Geneva Conventions prohibit displacement of civilians from occupied territory except temporarily for imperative military reasons or the population’s security,” HRW said.
The group said Israel’s actions “may also be considered ‘ethnic cleansing’”.
In February, Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said he had instructed the army “to prepare form a prolonged stay in the camps that have been cleared for the coming year”.
As the year’s end approaches, there’s still no end in sight.
Israeli forces continue to be deployed inside Nur Shams, Tulkarm and Jenin camps [BBC]
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told the BBC that “in order to locate and uproot the terrorist infrastructure at its source, the IDF has had to operate for an extended period of time.”
But already in August, Katz called the operation a success, saying “there is no terror in the camps and the scope of terror alerts in [the West Bank] has dropped by 80%.”
The IDF says it has dismantled bomb-making and other weapons facilities hidden inside all three camps.
It is not clear why Operation Iron Wall continues, although demolitions are still happening in the camps.
It seems clear from the pattern of destruction and the Israeli military’s own explanations, that the operation has longer term goals.
In a statement to the BBC, the IDF said armed groups had been able to exploit the densely built environment of the camps, making it hard for the army to move freely.
“The IDF is acting to reshape and stabilise the area,” the IDF spokesperson said. “An inseparable part of this effort is the opening of new access routes inside the camps, which requires the demolition of rows of buildings.”
Satellite images from all three camps show the extent of the damage, with narrow, barely visible streets now wide enough for military vehicles, including tanks, to pass through.
The demolitions, the IDF spokesperson said, were “based on operational necessity”, with residents able to submit objections and petitions to Israel’s Supreme Court.
All such petitions – some of which argued that Israel’s actions violated international humanitarian law – have been rejected.
According to HRW, Israel’s military has been given “wide discretion to invoke the grounds of urgent military necessity”.
HRW has called on the Israeli military to halt the forcible displacement of Palestinian civilians throughout occupied Palestinian territory, and allow all the residents of Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams to return to their homes.
The UN estimates that around 52% of the total structures in Jenin camp have been damaged [Reuters]
For tens of thousands of displaced people, the future remains uncertain.
Nehaya al-Jundi’s family eventually found refuge in a nearby village. But with their lives turned upside down and most of their possessions now out of reach, back in the camp, it’s been a hard year.
“Everything has been difficult since we left,” she says.
Nur Shams’ tight-knit community has been scattered across the Tulkarm area. Some are living with relatives, others in rented accommodation.
Many are out of work, dependent on modest handouts from the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority and various NGOs.
With schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) also out of action in the camps, education has also been severely impacted.
“My kids were enrolled in UNRWA schools,” says Nidal Abu Nase, whose family has been living with relatives since January.
“They went for months without school.”
Despite recent protests, such as this one near Nur Shams, very few residents have been allowed back into the camps [BBC]
Crucially, the camps’ strong communal bonds have been fractured.
The residents of West Bank refugee camps are mostly descended from Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948-49.
“For me, the camp is identity and culture,” Nidal says.
“There was love and affection in the camp,” Nehaya says, “but not anymore because we are far from each other.”
Nehaya has not seen her house since February. Despite recent protests, very few residents have been allowed back into the camps.
The community centre where she ran rehabilitation services for the disabled has been turned into an Israeli military barracks.
And reports from young men who have managed to sneak into Nur Shams suggest that Nehaya’s house is no longer habitable.
“They told me the house is wide open – and fully destroyed.”
The Israeli Navy has intercepted another flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists attempting to deliver aid to Gaza, according to the organizers.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Madleens to Gaza said on social media that nine vessels carrying around 150 activists from about 30 countries were stopped early Wednesday about 220 kilometres off the Gaza coast. The group said in a post on X that Israeli naval forces “attacked and illegally intercepted” the ships.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the interception, calling it “another futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone.”
The statement on X said the vessels were being escorted to an Israeli port and that all crew members were “safe and in good health.” The activists were expected to be deported shortly.
Last week, the Israeli Navy detained more than 40 boats from a similar aid flotilla carrying some 400 participants from various countries, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Most have since been released and deported.
Organizers of that earlier mission, known as the Global Sumud Flotilla, accused Israeli forces of physical and psychological mistreatment and of violating detainees’ rights — allegations the Israeli government dismissed as lies, saying all rights had been fully respected.
Critics argue that the amount of aid carried by such flotillas is too small to meaningfully assist Gaza’s population. The missions are mainly symbolic acts aimed to show solidarity with the Palestinians and draw attention to the situation in the Gaza Strip.
MSF claimed that the Israeli offensive in Gaza City posed an elevated risk to staff, and that airstrikes and tanks were currently less than half a mile from the organization’s facilities.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced on Friday that it had suspended its work in Gaza City, citing risks to its healthcare workers.
MSF claimed that the Israeli offensive in Gaza City posed an elevated risk to staff, and that airstrikes and tanks were currently less than half a mile from the organization’s facilities.
“We have been left with no choice but to stop our activities as our clinics are encircled by Israeli forces,” Jacob Granger, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, confirmed.
“This is the last thing we wanted, as the needs in Gaza City are enormous, with the most vulnerable people—infants in neonatal care, those with severe injuries and life-threatening illnesses—unable to move and in grave danger.”
Despite Hamas’s presence in the city and the terror group admitting to holding hostages there, MSF was critical of Israel’s decision to proceed with military intervention in Gaza.
Members of MSF, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), carry banners and flags during a protest demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, at Martyrs’ Square, downtown Beirut, Lebanon, December 4, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/EMILIE MADI)
Availability of healthcare in the Gaza Strip
MSF noted that hundreds of thousands of Gazans had not yet abided by the IDF’s evacuation orders. Some, the organization claimed, were unable to leave and had no choice but to stay as the war in Gaza City is expected to intensify.
The organization then condemned the lack of medical facilities in the Gaza Strip – claiming there was not a single fully operational hospital. Severe staff shortages, a lack of supplies, and a lack of fuel are reportedly creating critical barriers in civilian healthcare.
MSF also claimed that there is not a single safe space in Gaza, despite the opening of humanitarian corridors in the enclave.
The announcement also stated that MSF intended to continue supporting the “key services” provided by the Hamas-run health ministry, including those at Al-Helou and Al-Shifa hospitals.
MSF claimed last week to have given 3,640 consultations in Gaza City and to have treated 1,655 patients suffering from malnutrition, severe trauma injuries, and burns, as well as pregnant women.
At least 91 Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza Strip since dawn, where Israeli forces continue to heavily bomb Gaza City, the main urban centre in the besieged enclave.
Medical sources across Gaza hospitals told Al Jazeera on Saturday that at least 76 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City alone, where the Israeli army has been trying to forcibly expel the entire population in recent weeks.
In the area’s Tuffah neighbourhood, at least six people were killed in an Israeli drone attack. In western Gaza City’s Shati camp, at least five people, including two girls, were killed in an Israeli assault, an ambulance source told our Al Jazeera colleagues on the ground.
The Israeli military estimates it has demolished up to 20 tower blocks over the past two weeks in the area.
According to the Gaza Civil Defence, some 450,000 – or about half the urban centre’s population – have fled Gaza City since Israel in August announced its decision to capture and occupy it.
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza, move southwards after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south [Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters]
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from central Gaza, said Israeli forces were attacking people as they fled following Israel’s forced expulsion orders.
“The army is using quadcopters to kill people trying to escape their neighbourhoods and using these robots with residents saying every time they explode it feels like an earthquake,” she reported.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s ruling entity Hamas released on Saturday what it called a “farewell picture” of 48 Israeli captives held in Gaza.
Hamas has persistently warned that intensifying Israeli attacks and a ground invasion would endanger the lives of the captives; some have already been killed by Israeli bombs.
The armed Palestinian group also claims that captives are “scattered throughout the neighbourhoods” of besieged Gaza City.
Situation in al-Mawasi ‘heartbreaking’
While the Israeli army has intensified its deadly bombing and destruction of Gaza City, it said it is also continuing military operations in the south.
At least three of the dead were aid seekers killed by Israeli forces at a distribution centre near Rafah in southern Gaza.
Al Jazeera’s Khoudary said the al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza, touted by the Israeli army as a so-called “safe zone” and where Palestinians in the north were told to flee from, was “overcrowded”, leaving many with few alternatives.
“We’re seeing some tents on the sides of the streets. People have literally pitched their tents in places where there’s no water, electricity or infrastructure,” she said.
“That’s because Palestinians do not have any other option.”
Michail Fotiadis from medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says the situation in al-Mawasi is “heartbreaking”.
“Everybody is looking for a place to pitch a tent, but the materials are not available. The situation is really dire for the population. Access to water is very difficult,” Fotiadis told Al Jazeera from al-Mawasi, described by Israel as a “humanitarian zone”.
He said more Palestinians continue to arrive from northern Gaza with nothing after escaping Israel’s military onslaught.
“Usually, in a situation like this, survival prevails. But Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have had to endure so many different displacements, so many situations of fear. They are beyond desperation.”
Israel has completely destroyed more than 1,000 buildings in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City since it started its invasion of the city on August 6, trapping hundreds under the rubble, the Palestinian Civil Defence says.
The agency said in a statement on Sunday that ongoing shelling and blocked access routes are preventing many rescue and aid operations in the area.
Emergency workers continue to receive numerous reports of missing people but are unable to respond, while hospitals are overwhelmed by the toll of the attacks, it added.
“There are grave concerns about the continued incursion of Israeli forces into Gaza City, at a time when field crews lack the capacity to deal with the intensity of the ongoing Israeli attacks,” the Civil Defence said.
“There is no safe area in the Gaza Strip, whether in the north or south, where shelling continues to target civilians in their homes, shelters, and even in their displacement camps.”
Israeli tanks have been rolling into the Sabra neighbourhood as Israel moves to fully occupy Gaza City, forcing close to 1 million Palestinians there southwards.
The Civil Defence’s assertion appears to confirm fears that Israel is planning to fully demolish Gaza City, as it did in Rafah, a campaign that rights advocates say could be aimed at removing all Palestinians from Gaza.
At least three people, including a child, were among the latest victims killed in an attack on a residential apartment on al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, according to a source in the enclave’s emergency and ambulance department.
The area, where famine has been declared, has been under relentless Israeli bombardment over the last several weeks. Residents reported explosions echoing nonstop through the neighbourhoods, while several buildings were also blown up further north, in the ravaged Jabalia refugee camp.
At least 51 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Sunday, including 27 in Gaza City and 24 aid seekers, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said eight more people died of Israeli-induced hunger as starvation in the enclave intensifies, raising deaths from malnutrition to 289 people, including 115 children, since the war began.
Israeli forces have been routinely opening fire on hungry Palestinians as they attempt to secure meagre aid parcels at the controversial, Israeli and US-backed GHF sites.
‘Impossible’ to stay alive
Commenting on the worsening humanitarian situation, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said that famine is the “last calamity” hitting Gaza, where people are experiencing “hell in all shapes”.
“‘Never Again’ has deliberately become ‘again’. This will haunt us. Denial is the most obscene expression of dehumanisation,” Lazzarini wrote on X.
He added that it was time for the Israeli government to allow aid organisations to provide assistance, and for foreign journalists to be allowed into the enclave.
Gaza’s Ministry of Interior warned against Israeli plans to forcibly displace residents from Gaza City and the northern governorates, urging people against leaving their homes despite heavy bombardment.
The ministry called on residents to remain in their communities, or if threatened, to move only to nearby areas rather than relocate to the south.
“We urge citizens and displaced persons residing in Gaza City not to respond to the occupation’s threats and terrorism, and to refuse to be displaced and move to the remaining areas of the central and Khan Younis governorates,” it said.
“There is no safe place in any of the governorates of the Gaza Strip, and the occupation commits the most heinous crimes daily, even bombing the tents of displaced persons in areas it falsely claims are humanitarian or safe.”
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said Palestinians are nonetheless fleeing areas in Gaza City “under intensive Israeli air strikes and also attacks by quadcopters”.
“We met a couple of these families, and they said that it was [nearly] impossible for them to stay alive as they were fleeing and quadcopters were opening fire on whatever was moving in that area,” Khoudary said.
“Some Palestinians made it safely and were able to flee, but others were trapped in those areas and are unable to leave,” she added.
Leading rights groups and UN experts have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
