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00:00State media in Lebanon says an Israeli strike has hit central Beirut killing at least 11 people and
00:07Enduring 48. Well, we can bring you more on that throughout the course of the evening
00:12we're going to focus on a separate piece of
00:15News in the country south the UN's peacekeeping mission has accused Israeli forces of firing on its members
00:21The mission known as unifil says two United Nations
00:25Peacekeeping peacekeepers were wounded on Thursday when an Israeli tank fired towards an observation tower at their
00:33Headquarters in Nakora is the latest flashpoints intentions between the two sides since unifil said it rejected Israeli demands to
00:41Relocate some of its positions. Well, let's get more from our correspondent in Beirut
00:45Rawat Taha who can report now on what I've just mentioned. It's good to have you on the program, Rawat
00:51It's good to see that you are safe
00:53First of all, give us the latest on this attack
00:57So the latest information we just received an update from the Ministry of Health regarding the last round of a strike on central
01:03Beirut, we know for a fact that 11 were killed and 48 were
01:08Injured a lot of civilian casualties in this last
01:12Air strike. It's a very densely populated areas
01:17area according to
01:19There is still no confirmation from the Lebanese side on who the target of that airstrike was and whether it was an
01:27assassination, however
01:29Local sources have confirmed that at least one senior Hezbollah member has been killed in that airstrike
01:37Israeli media is reporting that the person who was assassinated is
01:41Wafi
01:42Wafiq Safa
01:43Just a background on who Wafiq Safa is. He is the head of Hezbollah's
01:49coordination unit
01:51liaison and coordination unit, so he's mostly responsible for a lot of
01:55Coordination with other parties in Lebanon internal affairs as well as a range of other
02:00tasks
02:02So potentially he could be the target of that assassination still no confirmation on that fact from any
02:10Security source here in Lebanon
02:12but we know for a fact that at least one senior Hezbollah member has been killed along with a number of civilians and
02:19the casualties and the number of those injured and killed is
02:23still rising and
02:25Tell us what you know about these accusations from the UN's peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon that Israeli forces fired on its members
02:34so what we know for a fact is that
02:37Israel has requested the UNIFIL to evacuate a number of their
02:42number of the observation points located along the border and to retreat at least five kilometers into
02:49Southern Lebanon away from the border now
02:51This kind of warning was also received a number of days ago when the ground invasion or incursion
02:58plan
02:59Started the Lebanese army itself. The Lebanese armed forces has retreated away from its original
03:09Original positions at the border, but the UNIFIL has
03:12refused to
03:14retreat from its positions maintaining that
03:17Its presence in that position is part of its peacekeeping
03:23mission, we know for a fact as well that
03:26Israeli troops were stationed very close to a UNIFIL
03:31observation point in the southern eastern part of Lebanon a few days ago near the Irish battalion, which is responsible for the
03:40observation in the southern eastern part of
03:43Lebanon after that UNIFIL issued
03:46a clear statement asking Israeli forces to retreat away from that
03:51Battalion position for the Irish forces as it would be endangering
03:56them
03:57now we are seeing also that there is
04:00There is there is clashes occurring on the western side of the border close to the Mediterranean Sea
04:08Near the town of Makoura that area is the responsibility of the Italian
04:13battalion within the
04:15United Nations that peacekeeping force
04:18So we've seen Israel calling for evacuation
04:22the UNIFIL forces refusing
04:25Maintaining its positions as part of its mandate and now
04:28shooting and
04:30Very close to those UNIFIL bases
04:32Rawat our correspondence in Beirut. Thanks so much for that up date them. Let's move on. Let's go to central