Israel, Hezbollah trade attacks during Yom Kippur

MIDDLE EAST

Lebanese officials say 22 killed in strikes

A woman views the wreckage in a central Beirut neighborhood on Friday. DAVID GUTTENFELDER — THE NEW YORK TIMES

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By Liam Stack, Christina Goldbaum, Euan Ward and Ephrat Livni

The New York Times

Israel and Hezbollah traded attacks Friday night as many Israelis began observing Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar. Earlier, the caretaker prime minister of Lebanon appealed in a speech for a diplomatic resolution to the fighting in his nation.

Sirens sounded in central Israel amid the holiday, and the Israeli military said two aerial drones had been detected crossing from Lebanese territory. They “were under surveillance from the moment they crossed the border from Lebanon,” the military said, noting that the air force successfully intercepted one. It added that there had been “damage to a building in Herzliya,” on Israel’s central coast, but no known casualties.

Residents of central Lebanon spent Friday searching the rubble of two buildings that were destroyed late Thursday in an area dotted with foreign embassies that had been largely untouched by the fighting. Lebanese officials said at least 22 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the strikes, which it attributed to Israel. Israel’s military did not respond to requests for comment on the strikes in Beirut.

On Friday, the Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah militants and rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.

In a televised address, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged Israel and Lebanon to return to the provisions of a 2006 U.N. agreement on demilitarizing the countries’ shared border, adopted after the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah.

In recent days, the question of how to restore that resolution has also consumed senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. A Hezbollah spokesperson indicated Friday that the group was open to cease-fire efforts.

Israel has been heavily bombing sites across Lebanon in recent weeks as part of a major offensive against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group.

Several strikes in Beirut have succeeded in killing their targets, including the longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and some of his close associates and presumed successors.

Here’s what else to know:

• Lebanese soldiers killed: On Friday, the Lebanese military said that the Israeli military had targeted an army center in the town of Kafra in southern Lebanon, killing two soldiers and injuring three others. The Lebanese army is distinct from Hezbollah and not a party to its conflict with Israel. The Israeli military said it was conducting an “in-depth examination” of the incident and was not aware of any Lebanese military facilities in the area of it strikes, which it said were aimed at Hezbollah targets.

• Peacekeepers struck: United Nations officials said Friday that two peacekeepers had been injured after explosions at their headquarters in southern Lebanon, leading one to be hospitalized. It followed a separate attack Thursday in which two peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired on the same U.N. base in Naqoura, Lebanon.

• Northern Gaza Strip: Many residents of northern Gaza are staying put despite the Israeli military’s dropping leaflets over the town of Jabalia over the weekend to warn people to evacuate to the south because of a coming offensive against Hamas. About 400,000 people remain in Gaza’s north, according to the United Nations, and many do not have the means to flee or are fearful of being permanently displaced.

• Polio vaccinations: A mass polio vaccination campaign in Gaza that provided initial inoculations to nearly 560,000 children is set to resume with a necessary second round of boosters Monday. But newly intensified Israeli assaults on the enclave and evacuation orders have cast doubt over whether medical teams will be able to reach all the children younger that 10 who received the first dose last month.

•Defense minister meeting: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke Thursday with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, about Israel’s expanding military operations in Lebanon, the Pentagon said Friday. A short summary of the call released by Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Austin’s spokesperson, made no mention of any discussion about Israel’s expected retaliation for Iran’s recent missile barrage.