BEIRUT: UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warned Saturday against a "catastrophic” regional conflict as Zionist entity forces battled Hezbollah and Hamas on two fronts, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Zionist entity has faced a fierce diplomatic backlash over incidents in south Lebanon that saw five Blue Helmets wounded. On Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said Zionist entity airstrikes on two villages located near the capital Beirut killed nine people.

Zionist entity had earlier told residents of south Lebanon not to return home, as its troops fought Hezbollah militants in a war that has killed more than 1,200 people since September 23, and forced more than a million others to flee their homes. Hezbollah said Saturday it launched missiles across the border into northern Zionist entity, where air raid sirens sounded and the military said it had intercepted a projectile.

In an interview with AFP, UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP he feared a Zionist entity escalation against Hezbollah in south Lebanon could soon spiral out of control "into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone”. The UN force said five peacekeepers have been wounded by fighting in south Lebanon in just two days, and Tenenti said "a lot of damage” had been caused to its posts there. Around Zionist entity, markets were closed and public transport halted as observant Jews fasted and prayed on Yom Kippur.

After the holiday, attention is likely to turn again to Zionist entity’s expected retaliation against Iran, which launched around 200 missiles at Zionist entity on October 1. Zionist entity began pounding Gaza shortly after suffering its worst ever attacks on October 7 last year, and it launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon on September 30. On Friday, Zionist entity faced criticism from the UN, its Western allies and others over what it said was a "hit” on a UN peacekeeping position in Lebanon. Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt in the second such incident in two days, UNIFIL said Friday.

Zionist entity’s military said soldiers had responded to "an immediate threat” around 50 meters from the UNIFIL base in Naqura, and has pledged to carry out a "thorough review”. The Irish military’s chief of staff, Sean Clancy, said it was "not an accidental act”, and French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed the peacekeepers had been "deliberately targeted”. Both countries are major contributors to UNIFIL whose peacekeepers are on the front line of the Zionist entity-Hezbollah war. Efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting have so far failed, but Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a "full and immediate ceasefire”.

Lebanon’s military said Friday a Zionist entity strike on one of its positions in south Lebanon killed two soldiers. In a show of support for Hezbollah, the speaker of the Iranian parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf visited the site Saturday of a deadly Zionist entity strike earlier this week. A source close to Hezbollah said the strike had targeted Hezbollah’s security chief Wafiq Safa, but neither Hezbollah nor Zionist entity has confirmed he was the target.

Ghalibaf’s Lebanon visit, a signal of Tehran’s defiance, comes after Zionist entity vowed to respond to Iran’s second-ever direct attack. The United States is pushing for a "proportionate” response that would not tip the region into a wider war, with President Joe Biden urging Zionist entity to avoid striking Iranian nuclear facilities or energy infrastructure. Zionist entity’s military campaign in Gaza has wrought

devastation and, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, killed 42,175 people, a majority civilians. Zionist entity operations in Gaza continue, with the army laying siege to an area around Jabalia in the north, causing more suffering for hundreds of thousands of people trapped there, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Pagers, walkie-talkies

Meanwhile, Iran has banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights, local media reported Saturday, weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon which were blamed on Zionists. "The entry of any electronic communication device, except mobile phones, in flight cabins or ... in non-accompanied cargo, has been banned,” ISNA news agency reported, citing the spokesman for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization Jafar Yazerlo.

The decision came over three weeks since sabotage attacks targeting members of the Iran-allied Hezbollah group in Lebanon that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode, killing at least 39 people. Nearly 3,000 others were wounded in the attack, which Iran and Hezbollah blamed on Zionists, including Tehran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani. Earlier this month, Dubai-based airline Emirates banned pagers and walkie-talkies onboard its planes. Regional tensions have soared since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October last year, drawing in Iran-aligned groups from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Multiple airlines have in recent weeks suspended flights to Iran following Tehran’s missile attack on Zionist entity on October 1. Iran fired some 200 missiles to retaliate against the killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders in the region and a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Zionist entity has since vowed to retaliate, with defense minister Yoav Gallant saying the response will be "deadly, precise, and surprising”.- AFP