The United States said on Sunday it will send to Israel an advanced anti-missile system — and U.S. troops to operate it — in a bid to bolster the country’s air defences following missile attacks by Iran.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he was sending the system “to defend Israel.”
Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) battery would augment Israel’s integrated air defence system.
“It is part of the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months, to support the defence of Israel and protect Americans from attacks by Iran and Iranian-aligned militias,” Ryder said in a statement.
Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi warned earlier on Sunday that the U.S. was putting the lives of its troops “at risk by deploying them to operate U.S. missile systems in Israel.”
“While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Araghchi posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon have been clashing since Oct. 8, 2023, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets over the border in support of its ally Hamas — a Palestinian militant group that led a deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and sparked the ongoing war in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 42,000 people have been killed since Israel began its siege.
Late last month, Israel launched a ground invasion into Lebanon.
The total toll in Lebanon over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is now 2,255 killed and over 10,000 wounded, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
More than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-September. It isn’t clear how many were fighters.
Israel is widely believed to be preparing a military response to Iran’s Oct. 1 attack, when it fired roughly 180 missiles into Israel.
Israel contests UN account of tank incursion
The United Nations said on Sunday that Israeli tanks had burst through the gates of a base of its peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks that have been denounced by Israel’s own allies.
The peacekeeping force, called the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate of a base and forcibly entered before dawn on Sunday morning. After the tanks left, shells exploded 100 metres away, releasing smoke that blew across the base and sickened UN personnel — causing 15 to require treatment despite wearing gas masks, it said in a statement.
In its version of events, the Israeli military said militants of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah had fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops, wounding 25 of them. The attack was very close to a UNIFIL post, and a tank that was helping evacuate the casualties under fire then backed into the UNIFIL post.
“It is not storming a base. It is not trying to enter a base. It was a tank under heavy fire, mass casualty event, backing up to get out of harm’s way,” the military’s international spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, told reporters.
In a statement, the military said it used a smoke screen to provide cover for the evacuation of the wounded soldiers but that its actions posed no danger to the UN peacekeeping force.
Five peacekeepers have been wounded in a series of strikes in recent days, most blamed by UNIFIL on Israeli forces.
The UN force said any deliberate attack on peacekeepers was “a grave violation of international humanitarian law and Resolution 1701” that established the mission.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres: “The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones.
“The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields.”
Save the Children reported that one million people, including 350,000 children, have been uprooted from their homes because of Israeli ground raids in southern Lebanon. Fidel Saad, who works for Save the Children International in Beirut, says the organization has been supporting families with food security, mental health activities for children and other essential needs
Hezbollah, which Israel has been battling on the ground in southern Lebanon since it launched an incursion at the start of this month, denies Israel’s accusation that it uses the proximity of peacekeepers for protection.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, typically one of Israel’s most vocal supporters among Western European leaders, spoke to Netanyahu by phone on Sunday and denounced the “unacceptable” Israeli attacks, her government said.
Netanyahu said he told Meloni that he regretted “any harm done to UNIFIL personnel” in Lebanon.
Two Indonesian peacekeepers were injured on Friday after two explosions near a watchtower in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL said. This followed two earlier injuries of peacekeepers after Israeli soldiers fired on UN positions on Wednesday and Thursday. France, Italy and UN Secretary General António Guterres have condemned the attacks. The Israeli military said it is conducting a review of the incident.
“Israel will make every effort to prevent UNIFIL casualties and will do what it takes to win the war,” he said on X.
Italy has more than 1,000 troops in the 10,000-strong UNIFIL force, making it one of the biggest contributors of personnel. France and Spain, which each have nearly 700 soldiers in the force, have also condemned the Israeli attacks.
The presence of UNIFIL puts peacekeepers from 50 separate countries in harm’s way, in a force initially set up in southern Lebanon in 1978.
The area has seen decades of conflict, with Israel invading in 1982, occupying southern Lebanon until 2000 and again fighting a major five-week war against Hezbollah in 2006, which ended with a ceasefire monitored by UNIFIL.
Hezbollah blamed for strike in central Israel
Israeli rescue services said almost 40 people were wounded in a drone strike in the central city of Binyamina on Sunday, three of them critically.
Hezbollah was blamed for one of the most serious strikes to land in Israel in a year of war.
Israel’s advanced air-defence systems mean that it’s rare for so many people to be hurt by drones or missiles.
Israeli media reported that two drones were launched from Lebanon, and Israel’s military said one was intercepted.
It was not immediately clear who was hurt, military or civilians, or what was hit.
It was the second time in two days that a drone has struck in Israel. On Saturday, during the Israeli holiday of Yom Kippur, a drone struck in a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing damage but no injuries.