Middle East latest: Four soldiers dead and dozens wounded in Hezbollah strike on northern Israeli army base – Sky News

Spain’s prime minister has urged members of the EU to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel. Meanwhile, four people have been killed and dozens burned in an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza hospital tent camp.
Monday 14 October 2024 11:47, UK
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An Israeli minister has accused has called UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon a “useless” force that failed to protect Israelis from Hezbollah attacks.
“The State of Israel will do everything to ensure the safety of its citizens, and if the UN cannot help, at least it should not interfere, and move its personnel from the combat zones,” Energy Minister Eli Cohen tweeted.

UNIFIL forces say they have repeatedly come under attack from Israel over the last week as Israel pushes into south Lebanon in an attempt to hit Hezbollah forces and their military infrastructure.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the peacekeepers to withdraw from the area and said they were providing “human shields” for Hezbollah.
Since 1978 the 10,000-strong UN force has been tasked with maintaining calm and reducing tensions along the “blue line” dividing Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
It comes after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said EU states had taken too long to condemn Israel’s “completely unacceptable” attacks on UNIFIL soldiers (see 8.28am post).
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has urged members of the European Union to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its actions in Gaza and Lebanon.
Both Spain and Ireland have been in talks with other EU nations for months over reviewing the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the basis Israel may be breaching the agreement’s human rights clause.
Ireland accuses Israel of trying to stop world from seeing what its troops are doing
It comes as Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin accused Israel of trying to prevent the world from seeing what its troops are doing in Lebanon and Gaza.
Asked what Israel intends in demanding United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers leave their bases on the border between Israel and Lebanon, Mr Martin said: “Essentially to drive the eyes and ears out of south Lebanon and to give itself free rein.”
UNIFIL forces have repeatedly come under attack from Israel over the last week, it has said.
Mr Martin said: “We cannot have an undermining and a chipping away of the status or the credibility or structures of the United Nations and particularly its peacekeeping forces.
“We see what’s happening in northern Gaza, for example, in terms of the necessity of eyes and ears on the ground. The world has really no full picture of what’s happening in Gaza.”
He added: “Israel is essentially now undermining [not only] the United Nations and the United Nations peacekeeping force, but the very rules based international order, and it needs to step back.”
A hospital tent camp in central Gaza has been hit by an Israeli airstrike.
Four people were killed and two dozen were severely burned after flames swept through the packed Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, according to Palestinian medics. 
The hospital was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter that killed at least 23 people when the early morning airstrike hit and fire engulfed many of the tents. 

The Israeli military said it had targeted militants hiding out among civilians, without providing evidence.

 The second phase of a polio vaccination campaign has started in central Gaza, the World Health Organisation has announced.
Aid groups carried out the first round of vaccinations last month and they aim to reach about 590,000 children aged under 10 in less than two weeks, the WHO said.
“For that to be possible, humanitarian pauses must be respected,” it added.
Last week UN officials voiced concerns that Israeli evacuation orders in northern Gaza might affect the vaccination campaign.
Some 42,289 Palestinians have been killed and 98,684 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since the war began, the Hamas-run health ministry has announced.
The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.
Sirens are sounding in central Israel after a number of projectiles were fired from Lebanon, the Israeli military has said.
The IDF shared a map of the areas where alerts sounded:
The Iranian connection to the attack on an Israeli military base that killed four soldiers and severely injured seven others can’t be ignored, our Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall has said.
The strike “will cause a lot of concern among the Israelis” he said, with the number of casualties the highest suffered in the last 12 months from a Hezbollah attack.
He said the fact the drone, or possibly drones, managed to evade Israeli defences would be a further worry, “and the fact that it not just hit a military base, but hit a canteen that was full at the time, will be particularly concerning”.
Bunkall added: “Now the question is whether that was just sheer coincidence and Hezbollah got lucky or whether or not they had some awareness of what might have been going on at the base at the time, and whether or not they’re using some form of technology that is able to evade Israel’s defence systems more effectively than previously.”
He said the drone or drones used in the attack “would have almost certainly come from Iran”.
“When you factor in that Israel is still considering what its response to Iran is going to be after Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at it two weeks ago, the Iranian connection can’t be ignored,” Bunkall added.
At least 10 people have been killed and 30 injured in Israeli airstrikes on a food distribution centre in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Palestinian medics have said.
The casualties included women and children, the medics added.
Israeli forces pushed further into the Jabalia area over the last weekend. International relief agencies say thousands of people are trapped in the refugee camp.
The IDF has not commented. Sky News has not independently verified the claims.
By Dominic Waghorn, international affairs editor 

A high noon is coming in Israel’s conflict with Iran, a ballistic missile showdown may be in the offing or perhaps something more asymmetrical and covert.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deciding how to retaliate for Iran’s multiple rocket attack on 1 October this year.
But the plan is shrouded in secrecy. In a video address on Sunday morning, Mr Netanyahu warned his ministers: “Talk little, do a lot.”
Israel focusing plans to target military and energy infrastructure
Sources have told Sky’s US partner NBC the Israelis are focusing on plans to target military and energy infrastructure. An attack on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme is now thought to be unlikely.
A strike on Iran’s oil facilities could have massive repercussions far beyond the Middle East – both economic and political.
Iran has warned it would hit back by attacking installations across the gulf in the Emirates, which could lead to a sharp increase in the price of crude oil, potentially disastrous for the global economy.
Attack on Iran may help Trump’s chances
Higher oil prices could in turn lead to pump prices rising sharply in the US in the last weeks before the presidential election, potentially helping Donald Trump’s chances of re-election – an outcome Mr Netanyahu would welcome.
For now though, the Israelis are keeping the world guessing as to when and exactly how they will strike Iran. They may choose a less obvious option too.
Israel is thought to have deeply penetrated Iran with intelligence assets. A covert attack on its infrastructure or government is possible.
THAAD deployment may give clues about timing of strikes
One development may give clues as to timing. President Joe Biden announced on Sunday the US will send Israel another advanced anti-ballistic missile defence system, known as THAAD.
The system will give Israel invaluable added protection if Iran strikes back again. But its deployment has only just been announced, suggesting any Israeli operation may still be a few days away.
THAAD requires 95 soldiers to operate per battery. That means American boots on the ground in Israel for the first time in this war.
However frustrated the Biden administration may be with the Netanyahu government on a series of fronts, militarily it continues to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its ally.
European Union states have taken too long to condemn Israel’s “completely unacceptable” attacks on UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) soldiers, its foreign policy chief has said.
“We should be against Israeli attacks against UNIFIL. Our soldiers are there, many soldiers are there,” Josep Borrell said.

UNIFIL has said it has repeatedly come under attack from Israeli forces over the last week.
The 10,000-strong UN force has been tasked with maintaining calm and reducing tensions along the “blue line” dividing Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights since 1978.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged peacekeeping forces to evacuate from Lebanon’s “danger zone”.
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