BEIRUT/GENEVA / Lebanon — An Israeli air strike on a town in eastern Lebanon killed six people, including four children, the Lebanese health ministry said, in a separate incident from a nearby commando operation.

 

"The Israeli enemy raid on the town of Shmistar in the Baalbek district at dawn resulted in the killing of six citizens, including four children and a woman," the ministry said in a statement.

 

The state-run National News Agency said that the six killed were from the same family, displaced from the city of Baalbek during the ongoing war between Israel and Hizbollah.

 

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday condemned an attack a day earlier on a UN base in southern Lebanon that seriously wounded three Ghanaian UN peacekeepers.

 

The Lebanese president has accused Israel of targeting them and the UN peacekeeping force has said it will investigate.

 

"The secretary-general condemns the incident on Friday March... in Al Qawzah, southwestern Lebanon, amidst heavy firing," Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

 

"The secretary-general underscores that the safety and security of UN personnel and property must be respected at all times, and that those responsible must be held accountable. The inviolability of UN installations must be respected by all."

 

The attack occurred during an exchange of fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hizbollah.

 

The international UN peacekeeping force has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon since 1978.

 

On Friday, the UN demanded swift investigations into waves of fatal Israeli strikes across Lebanon.

 

Dujarric said the UN urged the parties to the conflict "to de-escalate immediately and fully adhere to their obligations under [UN)]Security Council resolution 1701".

 

The UN resolution was designed to end a conflict in 2006 between Israel and Hizbollah. It served as the basis for a ceasefire agreement in 2024 between Hizbollah and Israel.

 

Meanwhile, Lebanon's military said on Saturday that a soldier was moderately wounded by gunfire coming from Syria a day prior in the country's northeast.

 

"A Lebanese soldier sustained moderate injuries as a result of gunfire from the Syrian side targeting a Lebanese army post in the Qasr-Hermel area," the military said, adding that "soldiers at the post returned fire".

 

"An investigation is underway to determine the circumstances of the incident in coordination with the relevant Syrian authorities."

 

On Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa informed him that Syrian troop building along the border with Lebanon was "solely aimed at strengthening border control and maintaining internal Syrian security", and that similar measures were taken on the border with Iraq.