Iran held a series of diplomatic talks on Sunday, with President Masoud Pezeshkian seeking support from France's Emmanuel Macron for a ceasefire in Lebanon, and the foreign minister visiting Iraq while on a regional tour.
According to a statement on Iran's presidential website, Pezeshkian and Macron discussed ways to secure a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel as the Iranian leader condemned Israel's "crimes" in Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel's military said a Hezbollah drone killed four soldiers at one of its northern bases Sunday, as it expanded its bombardments of Lebanon and troops battled militants across the border.
The attack on a military training camp in Binyamina, near Haifa, was the deadliest such assault on an Israeli base since September 23, when Israel increased its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Emergency services reported more than 60 wounded.
Forty nations that contribute to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Saturday that they "strongly condemn recent attacks" on the peacekeepers.
"Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated," said the joint statement, posted on X by the Polish UN mission and signed by nations including leading contributors Indonesia, Italy and India.
Other signatories include Ghana, Nepal, Malaysia, Spain, France and China -- all countries that have contributed several hundred troops to the force.
The prestigious Bayeux War Correspondents' Awards on Saturday honoured reporters from Agence France-Presse, the BBC and others documenting conflict and strife around the world.
AFP photographer Mahmud Hams won the top prize for photos including his harrowing image of a woman crying during a search for victims after an Israeli strike on Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023.
The picture was captured just days after the Gaza war erupted after the attack by Hamas militants against Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people.
As Israel undertakes its fourth ground offensive in southern Lebanon in 50 years, its troops again face rocky terrain mined with explosives and full of hiding places that previous generations of soldiers have battled over.
After pounding Gaza for nearly a year, Israeli forces began "targeted" ground raids on September 30 intended to push back Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon who have been bombarding northern Israel over the last year.
UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon will not move from the border area despite five of their members being wounded and damage to facilities during the Israel-Hezbollah war, their spokesperson told AFP on Saturday.
Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), also said that an Israeli escalation against Lebanese militants Hezbollah in past weeks risked turning into "a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone", and that the only solution was "diplomatic".
Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes on three villages outside traditional Hezbollah strongholds had killed at least 15 people Saturday, as state media reported further strikes elsewhere.
An "Israeli enemy strike on Maaysra", a Shiite Muslim majority village in a mostly Christian mountain area north of Beirut, left "nine dead and 15 wounded", the ministry said in a statement, updating an earlier toll.
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Saturday denounced Israel's "crimes" as he visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strikes on central Beirut in recent weeks, an AFP photographer said.
A source close to Hezbollah had said Thursday night's strikes in the densely populated Basta neighbourhood and the nearby Nweiri district had targeted the Iran-backed Lebanese group's security chief Wafiq Safa.
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warned Saturday against a "catastrophic" regional conflict as Israeli forces battled Hezbollah and Hamas militants on two fronts, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Israel has faced a fierce diplomatic backlash over the injuries suffered by five Blue Helmets serving in south Lebanon.
Lebanon's health ministry said Saturday that Israeli air strikes on three sites had killed at least 15 people, raising an earlier toll.
Israel observed Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, on Saturday amid a firestorm of international criticism over its military offensive in Lebanon and its soldiers firing on peacekeepers.
As the holy day got under way Friday from sundown, Israel faced diplomatic backlash over what it acknowledged was a "hit" earlier in the day on a United Nations peacekeeping position in Lebanon.
Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt in the second such incident in two days, the UNIFIL mission said Friday.
