Lebanon Detains Hezbollah Supporter in Probe of Irish UN Peacekeeper’s Killing 

Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping mission attend the repatriation ceremony for Irish soldier Sean Rooney who was killed on a UN peacekeeping patrol, at Beirut International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon December 18, 2022. (Reuters)
Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping mission attend the repatriation ceremony for Irish soldier Sean Rooney who was killed on a UN peacekeeping patrol, at Beirut International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon December 18, 2022. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Detains Hezbollah Supporter in Probe of Irish UN Peacekeeper’s Killing 

Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping mission attend the repatriation ceremony for Irish soldier Sean Rooney who was killed on a UN peacekeeping patrol, at Beirut International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon December 18, 2022. (Reuters)
Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping mission attend the repatriation ceremony for Irish soldier Sean Rooney who was killed on a UN peacekeeping patrol, at Beirut International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon December 18, 2022. (Reuters)

The Lebanese army detained over the weekend a main suspect in the recent killing of an Irish UN peacekeeper in a move coordinated with the Hezbollah party, two security sources and a Hezbollah spokesperson said. 

The man is a supporter of the Iran-backed party, but not a member of the group, the Hezbollah spokesperson told Reuters. 

The security sources said the man was suspected of firing shots at a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle that was travelling through south Lebanon on Dec. 15. 

Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed in the incident, the first fatal attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon since 2015. 

Hezbollah has officially denied involvement in the incident, calling the killing an "unintentional incident" that took place solely between the town's residents and UNIFIL. 

On Dec. 16, Ireland's then-foreign and defense minister Simon Coveney told state broadcaster RTE that he did not accept Hezbollah's assurances that it had no involvement. 

"We don't accept any assurances until we have a full investigation concluded to establish the full truth," he said. 

UNIFIL has operated in Lebanon since 1978 to maintain peace along its border with Israel. It was expanded after a UN resolution that halted the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon.



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.