Libanon

New Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said Wednesday that the militant group would continue fighting Israel in Lebanon and northern Israel until it is offered cease-fire terms it considers acceptable. 

An Interview with Karim Makdisi, Associate Professor of International Politics at the American University of Beirut.

An international conference on Lebanon gets underway in Paris this Thursday, amid hopes it will address the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict, but its potential impact remains uncertain without key players like Israel, Iran, and the United States.  

A displacement crisis in unfolding in Lebanon, as Israel’s escalating military offensive in the south and the bombing of Beirut continues to drive both Lebanese civilians as well as third country refugees from their homes and shelters, UN agencies warned on Wednesday. … Concern also continues for the safety and operations of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon with the UNIFIL mission, who patrol the Blue Line and support Lebanese civilians in need.

The UN’s top human rights official on Tuesday urged an immediate halt to hostilities in Lebanon following an overnight Israeli airstrike near a major hospital in Beirut that reportedly killed at least 18 people, including four children.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has said that an Israeli army bulldozer demolished an observation tower and the perimeter fence of a UN position earlier on Sunday in Marwahin, in the southern part of the country.

In another serious security incident in southern Lebanon, a UN peacekeeping position has been “apparently deliberately” struck by incoming fire from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The head of UN Peace Operations on Monday said ambassadors in the Security Council had given a “unanimous expression of support” to peacekeepers in Lebanon remaining in position along the Blue Line that separates south Lebanon from Israel, despite coming under fire, with five “Blue Helmets” sustaining injuries following attacks by Israeli forces.

This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital. 

Israel has launched a ground invasion in southern Lebanon, in what it has described as "limited, localised and targeted" raids against Hezbollah.