Middle East latest: Israeli airstrikes pound the eastern Lebanon city of Baalbek

Israeli airstrikes pounded the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek on Wednesday, killing at least 19 people, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry and state-run news agency.

Hours earlier, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire city — including its ancient Roman temple complex inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Israel said it was targeting sites connected to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Lebanon, according to government estimates. Lebanon's Heath Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 12,900 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.

The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported Monday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.

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Here's the latest:

UN peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon has recorded over 30 incidents resulting in damage

Andrea Tenenti, spokesman for the mission known as UNIFIL, told a video press conference from Beirut Wednesday that it attributed about 20 of the incidents to Israeli military fire or actions, ''with seven being clearly deliberate.''

In an incident Tuesday, he said, a rocket likely fired by Hezbollah or an affiliated group hit UNIFIL's headquarters in Nakura, setting a workshop on fire, with some peacekeepers suffering minor injuries.

The origin of the fire couldn't be determined for about a dozen incidents, he said.

''What has been very concerning are incidents where peacekeepers performing their monitoring tasks, as well as our cameras, lighting and entire watch towners, have been deliberately targeted,'' Tenenti said.

He stressed that the actions of both Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters are putting peacekeepers in danger, whether through deliberate acts or crossfire.

Even with the dramatic surge in exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah in the past few weeks, Tenenti said UNIFIL has also been working hard behind the scenes to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid by U.N. agencies and their local partners.

Biden and the president of Cyprus discuss cease-fire efforts in Gaza and Lebanon

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden met Wednesday with the president of Cyprus, the nearest European Union nation to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, to discuss new cease-fire efforts by the U.S. and mediators in the Middle East.

The small Mediterranean island has played a critical role in efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza since the war between Hamas and Israel began more than a year ago.

President Nikos Christodoulides said Biden and White House officials briefed him on the latest stepped-up efforts by the U.S. administration and other mediators but declined to offer further details about the discussion.

He added that the situation on the ground changes daily, but said he was ''quite optimistic'' that a Lebanon cease-fire deal could emerge in one to two weeks.

Hezbollah chief says group will hold out in its war with Israel for ‘suitable' cease-fire terms

BEIRUT — Hezbollah's newly named leader Naim Kassem has said in his first public comments that the militant group will keep fighting in its ongoing war with Israel until it is offered cease-fire terms it deems acceptable.

''If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say that we accept, but according to the conditions that we see as suitable,'' Kassem said, speaking from an undisclosed location in a pre-recorded televised address. ''We will not beg for a cease fire as we will continue (fighting)... no matter how long it takes.''

The speech comes as international mediators have launched a new push for negotiated cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza.

Residents decry lethal airstrikes on Lebanese city of Sidon

SIDON, Lebanon — A day after airstrikes shook Sidon, streets in the Lebanese coastal city were still veiled in dust and rubble. Six people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Excavators sifted through the debris, loading trucks with remnants of destroyed homes. Residents cleared shattered glass and plaster from gaping walls. The airstrikes hit two residential buildings opposite Sayyed Shohada, a Hezbollah-linked complex.

Local resident Abdullah Habli called the attack ''a massacre against civilians.''

''This building they bombed had no one in it. It housed poor, struggling people. This street is an ordinary residential street with ordinary, civilian residents. There are no weapons here,'' Habli added.

''I haven't seen any military activity here at all," said Mahmoud Al Ghoul, displaced from Mays al-Jabal in the Marjeyoun province.

''(Israel) always claims Hezbollah fighters or weapons are in the area. But many of the areas it strikes have no Hezbollah, no Amal movement, or any other party,'' said Ali Al-Amin, who had been displaced from Tyre, another Lebanese city.

Main highway linking Syria with Lebanon reopens after strikes

BEIRUT — The main Damascus-Beirut highway reopened after the Lebanese Army cordoned it off following apparent Israeli strikes on two vehicles along the route, Lebanon's Civil Defense said.

In a joint statement, the municipalities of Kahala and Aaraya blamed ''the use of international roads and civilian vehicles for the movement of gunmen and the transfer of weapons and ammunition.'' The statement said it risks civilian lives and property along the route, and urged the Lebanese Army to intervene.

The commander of the Lebanese Civil Defense's southern district fire and rescue unit, Saad Al Ahmar, told The Associated Press that his team participated in extinguishing fires in the areas of both strikes. He said the road has now been reopened.

UN Security Council warns Israel against attempts to dismantle UNRWA

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council has warned Israel against any attempts to dismantle the U.N. agency that is a lifeline for Palestinian refugees in Gaza and demanded that all parties allow it to continue working in the embattled enclave.

In a strongly worded statement Wednesday, the U.N.'s most powerful body called the agency, known as UNRWA, ''the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza.''

It stressed that ''no organization can replace or substitute UNRWA's capacity and mandate to serve Palestinian refugees and civilians in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian assistance.''

The council urged the Israeli government ''to abide by its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of UNRWA and live up to its responsibility to allow and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip, including the provision of sorely needed basic services to the civilian population.''

Gaza is in the throes of an escalating humanitarian crisis, with virtually its entire 2.3 million population surviving without enough food and the threat of famine looming.

The Security Council emphasized UNRWA's ''vital role'' in providing education, health care, relief and social services to Palestinian refugees not only in the Palestinian territories but in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA's 13,000 staff members in Gaza participated in the Hamas attacks last year that sparked the war in Gaza. It also has said hundreds of UNRWA staff have militant ties and that it has found Hamas military assets in or under the agency's facilities.

Israeli military says T

JERUSALEM — An Israeli military official says the target of Tuesday's attack on a five-story building that Gaza health officials reported resulted in scores of deaths was a spotter with binoculars in the building, and that the intent was not to destroy the structure.

The military official agreed to provide details only on condition of anonymity, citing military protocol and the ongoing investigation into the incident.

The official said Wednesday the building was not known to be a shelter for civilians, and that it collapsed as a result of the strike on the spotter.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday that at least 70 people were killed in the first of two strikes on the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, and that more than half of the victims were women and children. The Israeli military had earlier said it was investigating the strike. The Gaza Health Ministry's casualty tolls do not differentiate between civilians and militant fighters.

The official said there were discrepancies between the numbers of victims reported by authorities in Gaza and what Israeli intelligence indicates, and that the victims included known militants. The official did not provide detailed evidence to support that assertion.

—By Adam Schreck

Israeli hospital officials say rocket from Lebanon wounded 2

JERUSALEM — Hospital officials in Israel say a rocket fired from Lebanon has wounded two men, one seriously.

The men were wounded by rocket shrapnel on Wednesday in Metula, an Israeli town just across the border from Lebanon, said a spokesperson for the Rambam Hospital, where they were airlifted.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel issues an evacuation warning for the entire Baalbek city in eastern Lebanon

BEIRUT — For the first time in the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war, the Israeli army has issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire eastern city of Baalbek, along with surrounding areas and key routes in the Bekaa Valley.

Earlier Wednesday, a drone strike targeted a van on Lebanon's Aaraya highway, a major road linking Beirut to the Bekaa, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Lebanese capital, resulting in flames, according to Lebanese state media. Another vehicle in Bchamoun, roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles) southeast of Beirut, was also targeted, as reported by the state-run National News Agency. This is the first time in the conflict that the area is targeted.

The number of casualties and the intended targets were not yet known.

The area marked in Wednesday's evacuation order includes the ancient Roman temple complex, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. On Oct. 6, an Israeli strike hit some 700 meters (750 yards) away from the ancient citadel, which houses two of the largest Roman temples in the world.

OSLO, Norway — Norway is asking for a clarification on Israel's responsibility under international law when preventing the United Nations, international humanitarian organizations and states from helping Palestinians.

''The international community cannot accept that the U.N., international humanitarian organizations and states face systematic obstacles to being able to work in Palestine and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians under occupation,'' Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Wednesday. ''It undermines the Palestinians' right to vital aid. Then we have to react.''

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, provides essential services to millions of Palestinians across the Middle East and has underpinned aid efforts in Gaza throughout the Israel-Hamas war. Legislation barring it from operating in Israel passed with an overwhelming majority Monday. Israel says UNRWA has allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas, with the militants siphoning off aid and using the agency's facilities as shields. UNRWA denies the allegations, saying it is committed to neutrality and acts quickly to address any wrongdoing by its staff.

Norway has called for a resolution in the U.N. General Assembly that asks the International Court of Justice ''to give an advisory opinion on the duties of Israel as an occupying power to facilitate aid to the population of Palestine.'' Gahr Støre added that a number of countries have expressed support for the initiative, in addition to UNRWA.

Under international law, Israel has an obligation to help the Palestinian population under occupation, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said.