UNIFIL Deputy Commander Injured after Convoy Attacked by Hezbollah Supporters in Beirut

Firefighters extinguish a burning UNIFIL vehicle, set ablaze by protesters, on the road leading to Beirut's international airport on February 14, 2025. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)
Firefighters extinguish a burning UNIFIL vehicle, set ablaze by protesters, on the road leading to Beirut's international airport on February 14, 2025. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)
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UNIFIL Deputy Commander Injured after Convoy Attacked by Hezbollah Supporters in Beirut

Firefighters extinguish a burning UNIFIL vehicle, set ablaze by protesters, on the road leading to Beirut's international airport on February 14, 2025. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)
Firefighters extinguish a burning UNIFIL vehicle, set ablaze by protesters, on the road leading to Beirut's international airport on February 14, 2025. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)

The outgoing deputy force commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was injured on Friday after a convoy taking peacekeepers to Beirut airport was attacked by Hezbollah supporters.

UNIFIL said the deputy commander — Maj. Gen. Chok Bahadur Dhakal from Nepal — had been set to leave the country after completing his mission when the UNIFIL convoy “was violently attacked, and a vehicle was set on fire.”

It demanded a full and immediate investigation by Lebanese authorities and for all perpetrators to be brought to justice, it said in a statement.

The protest came after Iran barred Lebanese planes from repatriating dozens of Lebanese nationals stranded in Iran on Friday, in a standoff after Lebanon blocked an Iranian civilian flight.
Lebanon halted the flight to Beirut this week after the Israeli military accused Tehran of using civilian aircraft to smuggle cash to Beirut to arm Hezbollah.
Iran said it would not allow Lebanese flights to land until its own flights were cleared to land in Beirut.
The standoff has left dozens of Lebanese citizens stranded in Iran for three days after attending a religious pilgrimage. They had been due to return to Beirut on Iran's Mahan Air before Lebanon barred the plane from landing.
Dozens of Hezbollah supporters cut off roads around Beirut's airport late on Thursday and Friday in protest.

Lebanon’s civil aviation agency said Thursday that “additional security measures” meant some flights were temporarily rescheduled until Feb. 18 -- the same day as a deadline for Israel and Hezbollah to fully implement the ceasefire agreement that ended their latest war in late November, including a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned on Saturday the attack, saying security forces will not tolerate anyone who tries to destabilize the country, according to a statement by the president's office.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and the army, in separate statements, condemned the attack too and said urgent measures would be taken to identify and arrest the attackers and prevent any violation of civil peace.
Lebanese state news agency NNA reported that Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar called for an emergency meeting before noon on Saturday to discuss the security situation.
"He affirmed the Lebanese government's rejection of this assault that is considered a crime against UNIFIL forces," NNA reported, citing the Lebanese minister.
He also gave instructions to work on identifying the perpetrators and referring them to the relevant judicial authorities.

The Amal Movement, the political party of parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, said in a statement that “the attack on UNIFIL is an attack on southern Lebanon” and called for the army and security forces to pursue the perpetrators.
The United States also condemned the attack.

After blocking the Iranian flight, Lebanon dispatched two planes on Friday from its own national airliner Middle East Airlines to bring the stranded Lebanese home from Iran, but Iran refused to allow the Lebanese aircraft to land on its territory.
Iran's ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, told Iran's state television on Friday that Iran would allow the planes to land only if Iranian flights were allowed to travel to Beirut.



Israeli Fire Kills 41 People in Gaza, Medics Say

 A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Fire Kills 41 People in Gaza, Medics Say

 A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 13, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 41 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday, local health authorities said, at least five of them near two aid sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). 

Medics at Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza Strip said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire as they tried to approach a GHF site near the Netzarim corridor. Two others were killed en route to another aid site in Rafah in the south. 

An airstrike killed seven other people in Beit Lahia town north of the enclave, medics said. In Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 11 people in a house. The rest were killed in separate airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip, they added. 

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. 

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a near three-month total blockade. Scores of Palestinians have been killed in near-daily mass shootings trying to reach the food. 

The United Nations rejects the Israeli-backed new distribution system as inadequate, dangerous, and a violation of humanitarian impartiality principles. 

Later on Sunday, COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, said that this week it had facilitated the entry of 292 trucks with humanitarian aid from the United Nations and the international community, including food and flour, into Gaza. 

It said the Israeli military would continue to permit the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave while ensuring it did not reach Hamas. Hamas denies Israeli accusations that it steals aid and says Israel is using hunger as a weapon against the Gaza population. 

The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 300 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,600 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza. 

"These are not humanitarian aid, these are traps for the poor and the hungry under the watch of occupation planes," said Munir Al-Bursh, Director-General of the health ministry. 

"Aid distributed under fire isn't aid, it is humiliation," Bursh posted on X on Sunday. 

The war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led fighters raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, on October 7, 2023, Israel's single deadliest day. 

Israel's military campaign since has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread.