Three United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers were lightly injured while on patrol in the country’s south on Sunday, the observer mission said.
According to UNIFIL, they were hurt when an explosion occurred near a “clearly marked UN vehicle” near Yarine, about 12 miles south of Tyre. It added that they returned safely to their base.
“We are looking into the incident. We are strongly reminding all parties and actors of their responsibility to avoid harm to peacekeepers and civilians,” UNIFIL said.
UNIFIL deploys 10,000 “blue helmet” staffers in Southern Lebanon. It is the U.N.’s longest-running observer mission, operating since 1978.
On March 30, a Hezbollah bomb wounded a group of UNIFIL workers in Southern Lebanon that initial reports attributed to the Jewish state, the IDF said in early April.
IDF Arabic-language spokesman Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee tweeted that the injuries to the U.N. peacekeeping force members were caused by an explosive device planted by the Iranian terrorist proxy.
Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel
Iran’s Lebanese terrorist proxy launched a barrage of 20 rockets towards the Kiryat Shmona area on Sunday afternoon. Some of the projectiles were intercepted by IDF air defenses, and no casualties were reported.
On Saturday, Hezbollah fired a 55-rocket salvo at a northern kibbutz, in what the Shi’ite militia said was in response to an Israeli airstrike overnight Friday.
The IDF said that it attacked a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Nabatieh in Southern Lebanon.
The rockets hit near Ayelet HaShahar, some in open areas. No injuries were reported, but fires were ignited and Israel Fire and Rescue Services personnel were dispatched to the scene to extinguish the blazes.
At least 10 people were killed and another five wounded, including two critically, in the Israeli airstrike, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The ministry said that all of the dead were Syrians, including a woman and her two children. Hezbollah said all of the dead were civilians.
Two IDF soldiers wounded
An IDF soldier was severely wounded and another soldier lightly injured on Saturday morning from a projectile fired from Lebanon and hit near Kibbutz Misgav Am in the Galilee Panhandle. The soldiers were evacuated to the hospital and their families were notified.
IAF hits Radwan commander
On Saturday, the Israeli Air Force killed Hussein Ibrahim Kasseb, a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. The terrorist was killed while riding a motorcycle near Tyre.
The IAF also on Saturday struck Hezbollah military structures in the areas of Markaba, Ramyeh and Kfarhamam.
Additionally, IDF artillery fired to remove a threat in the areas of At Tiri, Labbouneh and Hanine.
Some blame Hezbollah for nationwide power outage
Some Lebanese blamed Iran and its local proxy Hezbollah, and also the “corrupt government” in Beirut, for a nationwide power outage on Saturday.
The critical comments came from social media users after the country’s power utility Électricité du Liban announced the complete halt to electricity supply, including at Rafik Hariri International Airport and the Port of Beirut, on Saturday night.
The company said in a statement that the last group of production units at the Zahrani Power Plant in Southern Lebanon went offline after running out of fuel. Zahrani is the last plant generating electricity in the Land of the Cedars.
“Life in Lebanon came to a halt after the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards seized control through Hezbollah,” one web surfer wrote.
“Lebanon today is without electricity. The hand of Hezbollah and its allies in the Ministry of Energy from 2005 to the present day—this is what caused this situation,” another internet user typed.
“Palestine is not liberated and Lebanon has not remained. The cutoff of electricity in Lebanon and basic services is the last thing before Lebanon’s return to the age of transportation on donkeys. What do you expect to happen when you transfer power to an extreme terrorist gang? Of course things will return to the Stone Age,” another said.
Another poster added that “Hezbollah has no interest in us having a state. Hezbollah does not want electricity—they want the generators to continue working to provide donations to the organization.”
Hezbollah’s role in controlling the energy market in Lebanon has been known for years and the country, which in recent years has suffered from an economic crash and political corruption, has experienced frequent blackouts. Residents often experience only a few hours of electricity per day and rely on backup generators.
The director the Beirut airport said on Saturday night that it was still in operation and was using backup generators.
The Lebanon Water Corporation called on users to conserve water during the power outage.
The electricity company said it “will restart the production units at the Zahrani Plant that were forcibly taken offline, in line with the storage that will be available to it after securing fuel, to gradually restore electricity supply to its previous levels.”
