UNIFIL decries escalating violence on Lebanon-Israel border

The U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel has calling for ending the escalation a day after exchanges of fire killed 17 people.

The force known as UNIFIL said it is very concerned over the surge of cross-border violence between the Israeli military and Lebanon-based militant groups including Hezbollah.

On Wednesday, a series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people and a barrage of rockets fired by Hezbollah killed one Israeli man, making it the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border.

UNIFIL said the escalation has caused a high number of civilian deaths adding that it is imperative that “this escalation cease immediately.”

“We urge all sides to put down their weapons and begin the process toward a sustainable political and diplomatic solution,” UNIFIL said. It added that the peacekeeping force remains ready to support that process in any way it can.

The fighting along the border started a day after the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas into southern Israel on Oct. 7.

There have been near-daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israel ever since, resulting in the death of at least 347 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also over 60 civilians.

Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north and Israel has threatened to launch a military operation against Hezbollah to push it away from the border.