Israeli strikes on central Beirut kill at least 22 and injure more than 100
ITV News' reporters Sam Holder and John Ray on the latest Israeli airstrike on central Beirut.
At least 22 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on Beirut, Lebanese health authorities have said.
Thursday's air raid was the deadliest to hit central Beirut in a year, hitting two residential buildings in the city centre.
Rescue workers are searching through the rubble for survivors.
Israel's military has said it is looking into the strikes.
Previous attacks on Beirut, since Israel ramped up its offensive in September, have focused on the city's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah bases many of its operations, rather than its centre.
Israel made a double attack on Thursday on the centre of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, as ITV News' correspondent John Ray reports
The attack came just hours after Israeli forces fired at United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, wounding two of them.
The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said an Israeli tank had fired directly at an observation tower at the force’s headquarters in the town of Naqoura and that soldiers had attacked a bunker near where peacekeepers were sheltering.
The organisation has now called for an inquiry into the attack on its peacekeepers.
In a statement, the UNIFIL said: "The UN should urgently establish, and UN member countries should support, an international investigation into the hostilities in Lebanon and Israel with a mandate to publicly report on violations."
The Israeli military acknowledged opening fire at a UN base in southern Lebanon on Thursday, and said it had ordered the peacekeepers to “remain in protected spaces.”
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, sharply condemned Israeli strikes that hit UNIFIL positions as “an inadmissible act, for which there is no justification.”
Despite the rising death toll in Lebanon and the attacks on UN workers, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave his support to Israel’s escalated campaign against Hezbollah, saying it had “clear and legitimate” reasons.
Mr Blinken added the US was still trying to find a diplomatic solution to the war and called for more to be done to get much needed humanitarian aid to civilians in north Gaza and other areas.
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Israel launched a ground invasion into Lebanon on September 30.
The total number of people killed in Lebanon since Hamas' attacks on Israel sparked ongoing conflict last October has now reached 2,169.
Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians in northern Israel since the war began, as well as 39 Israeli soldiers.
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