Middle East latest: 'Serious development' as explosions reported at UN peacekeeper base; Hezbollah makes threat to Israel (2025)

Aid workers trapped in north Gaza's Jabalia camp have described fearing for their lives.

Thousands of people are currently trapped in the camp, including five staff from the international medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

Haydar, an MSF driver trapped in the Jabalia camp, said: "People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave."

Speaking on the situation there, Sarah Vuylsteke, MSF project coordinator, said: "Nobody is allowed to get in or out, anyone who tries is getting shot.

"We were staying at the Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital, but they bombed it. About 20 people were killed. I don't know what to do, at any moment we could die."

Jabalia is the largest of Gaza eight historic refugee camps and the region has become a focus of Israel's operations, with the IDF saying they are fighting Hamas militants and dismantling military infrastructure there.

We brought you reports from the Lebanese army earlier that two people had been killed and three others injured after the Israeli military struck southern Lebanon (see post at 3.49pm).

Now, the army has said the airstrike killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three other troops.

The airstrike hit a building near a military checkpoint in Kafra, Bint Jbeil province in southern Lebanon and came just hours after Israeli troops fired on the headquarters of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, injuring two peacekeepers.

Lebanon's army has largely stayed on the side lines of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in hopes of preventing it from spiralling out of control.

After Israeli troops launched their ground invasion in southern Lebanon, Lebanese troops withdrew some 5km from their observation posts along the border.

But as Israel escalates its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, Lebanese troops have increasingly found themselves in the crossfire.

The IDF has said it has killed another Hezbollah commander.

Araeb el Shoga was a commander in the Hezbollah Radwan Forces' anti-tank missile unit in southern Lebanon.

He was responsible for numerous anti-tank missile attacks in northern Israel, the Israeli military said.

Over the past few months, Israeli forces have killed numerous Hezbollah officials.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed after Israeli airstrikes in Beirut last month.

Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah's operations commander, was also killed in an Israeli strike in the suburbs of Lebanon's capital.

And this month the IDF said it had conducted a precise strike that eliminated Suhail Hussein Husseini, commander of the Hezbollah headquarters in the Beirut area.

Hezbollah's priority right now is defeating Israel militarily, the head of Hezbollah's media office, Mohammad Afif, has said.

"Tel Aviv is only the start, Israel has only seen so little," he said.

"Our absolute priority now is to defeat the enemy and force them to stop the aggression.

"However, any internal or external political effort to achieve a cessation of aggression is appreciated as long as it is consistent with our comprehensive vision of the battle, its circumstances and its results."

He denied there were weapons stored in Beirut's southern suburbs and said Israel used timed bombs to make it seem so, promising residents of the neighbourhood and those displaced from southern Lebanon and Bekaa that they would return soon.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah's top leaders, and sending ground troops into areas of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has also been firing rockets deeper into Israel.

Lebanon's army has said two people were killed and three others injured after Israeli forces targeted one of its military posts in southern Lebanon's Kafra, Reuters reports.

Sky News has not been able to verify this report.

Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have clashed along the border.

We have been reporting today that two people from UNIFIL, the UN's peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, were injured when Israel fired on them yesterday.

Now, the IDF has commented on the incident and said the peacekeepers were "inadvertently hurt during IDF combat against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon".

"The IDF expresses deep concern over incidents of this kind and is currently conducting a thorough review at the highest levels of command to determine the details," IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani said.

"It is crucial to note that the IDF is operating in southern Lebanon as part of an ongoing conflict with Hezbollah whose terrorists and infrastructure are in close proximity to UNIFIL positions posing a significant risk to the safety of peacekeepers."

Mr Shoshani said the military took "every precaution to minimise harm to civilians and peacekeepers alike".

UNIFIL said earlier the explosions went off close to an observation tower at its headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura.

One of the injured peacekeepers was taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Tyre, while the other was treated at the site.

A number of images have been emerging today from the site of Israel's airstrikes in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, which killed 22 people and wounded dozens more.

The air raid, the deadliest attack on centralBeirut in over a year of war, hit two residential buildings in neighborhoods that have swelled with displaced people fleeing Israeli bombardment elsewhere in the country.

Dozens of people have been wounded byIsraeli quadcopter fire at a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, the Palestinian Civil Defence has said.

The agency said crews were transferring those injured to a nearby hospital.

We'll bring you more details as we get them.

We reported earlier on a UN source who said Israeli forces had attacked the organisation's peacekeeper observation post in Lebanon again this morning.

It came after two people from UNIFIL, the UN's peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, were injured when Israel fired on them yesterday.

An official UN statement now appears to have confirmed the second attack, while providing more detail about the incident at the Naqoura headquarters.

"Two peacekeepers were injured after two explosions occurred close to an observation tower," the statement said.

"One injured peacekeeper was taken to a hospital in Tyre, while the second is being treated in Naqoura.

"Today, several T-walls at our UN position 1-31, near the Blue Line in Labbouneh, fell when an IDF caterpillar hit the perimeter and IDF tanks moved in the proximity of the UN position.

"Our peacekeepers remained at the location, and a UNIFIL Quick Reaction Force was dispatched to assist and reinforce the position."

The spokesperson added that the attacks again put UN peacekeepers "at very serious risks".

"This is a serious development, and UNFIL reiterates that the safety and security of UN personnel and property must be guaranteed and that the inviolability of UN premises must be respected at all times," they said.

"Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and Security Council resolution 1701 (2006)."

Downing Street has joined a growing chorus of international condemnation, saying it is "appalled" by reports that Israel deliberately fired on peacekeepers in Lebanon.

"It is vital that peacekeepers and civilians are protected," a spokeswoman said.

Asked if Sir Keir Starmer saw the attacks as a breach of international law, she said: "All parties must always do everything possible to protect civilians and comply with international law. But we continue to reiterate that and call for an immediate ceasefire."

Meanwhile, the European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said there was "no justification" for the strikes and called them "an inadmissible act".

The Italian defence ministry has summoned Israel's ambassador in protest, while the Irish premier has said he is deeply concerned at the reports.