U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington was still working to prevent a larger war in the Middle East and urged Israel to protect civilians after 22 people were killed in strikes on central Beirut.
SEE ALSO: Living Under The Threat Of Hezbollah Rockets In Northern IsraelBlinken spoke a day after Israeli air strikes targeted two buildings in Beirut, one of which completely collapsed.
"We continue to engage intensely to prevent broader conflict in the region," Blinken told reporters after an East Asia Summit in Laos, adding that it was "vitally important" for Israel to ensure that civilians are protected during the conflict.
Lebanese sources said at least one senior Hezbollah figure was targeted in the attacks, which were the third on Beirut since Israel started a military campaign in southern Lebanon last month against the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia, sparking fears of an all-out regional war.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported after the strikes that an attempt to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group, had failed. It said that Safa had not been inside either of the targeted buildings.
Safa heads Hezbollah's liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies, security sources said.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah kept up its rocket fire into Israel on October 10, with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) saying that several drones heading toward Israel had been intercepted.
Earlier on October 10, an Israeli strike on a school in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people, Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military said it had carried out a "precise strike on terrorists" who had a command-and-control center embedded in the school.
"This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organization's systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law," an Israeli military statement said.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the EU, has denied such accusations. People who had been sheltering at the school said the strike hit a meeting of aid workers and injured 54 other people.
Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across Gaza as it battles Hamas militants, even as the war broadened to include Hezbollah in Lebanon amid rising tensions with Iran.
In a separate incident on October 10, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers. The nationality of the injured peacekeepers was not released.
The UN peacekeeping mission -- known as UNIFIL -- said in a statement that Israeli forces also fired on a nearby bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system.
The Italian Defense Ministry summoned Israel's ambassador in protest, and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told a press conference that "hostile acts committed and repeated by Israeli forces against the base...could constitute war crimes."
Crosetto added that Italy has asked for an official explanation "because it was not a mistake."
The French Foreign Ministry said that while no French soldiers were injured in the incident, it also demanded an explanation.