🔴 Live: Israeli attacks on UN forces in Lebanon must stop, say France, UK, Italy and Germany

Vehicles from the UN's peacekeeping force UNIFIL patrol in Marjayoun in southern Lebanon on October 12, 2024. © AFP

Israeli attacks on the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, are contrary to international humanitarian law and must stop at once, Italy, Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement on Monday. Earlier, an Israeli strike on a village in northern Lebanon killed at least 21 people, local officials said, in one of the northernmost strikes since Israel began its offensive in late September. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments on the situation in the Middle East.

Summary:

• Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed to hit Hezbollah "without mercy", a day after a drone attack on a military base near Israel's Haifa killed at least four soldiers and wounded more than 60.

• An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 21 people, according to Lebanese health officials and the Red Cross.

• The European Union condemned attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon and rejected Israeli allegations that the UN was keeping them there to obstruct military operations against Hezbollah.

• An Israeli air strike on the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza killed at least four people and left dozens with severe burns, Palestinian medics said. 

• More than 42,289 Palestinians have been killed and 98,684 wounded in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since October 7, 2023 according to the Gaza health ministry. 

Yesterday's key developments:

• At least 15 people were killed late Sunday in Israeli shelling at a school serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians in central Gaza's Nuseirat camp, the territory’s civil defence agency said.

• The US is sending a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence battery to Israel along with US troops to operate it, the Pentagon said hours after Iran warned the US to keep its military forces out of Israel.

• The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon said that there had been further Israeli violations against its positions after Israeli tanks entered a UNIFIL post in the Lebanese town of Ramiya near the border with Israel.

• The Lebanese Red Cross said a team of its paramedics was hit by a strike while on a rescue mission in the southern part of Lebanon, leaving personnel lightly wounded and two ambulances damaged.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)