Biden says 'absolutely' asking Israel to not hit UN peacekeepers in Lebanon

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he is asking Israel to not target UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, Anadolu news agency reported.

“Absolutely, positively,” Biden told reporters when asked if he was asking Israel to stop hitting UN peacekeepers.

His remarks came after Israeli forces early Friday shelled an observation post belonging to UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) at its headquarters in Naqoura, southern Lebanon, wounding two peacekeepers from the Sri Lankan contingent, Lebanon’s state National News Agency said.

Two peacekeepers were also injured in a similar attack on Thursday.

Israel has mounted massive air strikes across Lebanon against what it claims Hezbollah targets since 23 September, killing more than 1,351 people, injuring 3,800 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in a year-long cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

At least 2,083 people have since been killed and 9,869 others injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching, on 1 October, a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

READ: UNIFIL rejects Israel evacuation orders from southern Lebanon