Middle East Live Blog: ++ Israel strikes again in Lebanon ++

Lebanese militants attacked Israel with 55 rockets and drones. Israeli forces shot and killed a UNRWA worker in the West Bank. Live blog developments.

Lebanese militants fired 55 projectiles at the northern Israeli city of Safed and surrounding areas. The Israeli military said the missiles and drones were intercepted by Israeli air defenses or struck uninhabited areas. There were no injuries. However, local media reported that the rocket attacks caused fires in vegetation.

According to its own statement, the Israeli military struck several rocket sites belonging to the Shiite militia Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, which has previously attacked Israel. The Iran-backed group said the attack killed one of its fighters.

A UNRWA worker was shot dead on the roof of his home in the West Bank town of Farah, the aid agency said, the first violent death of a worker in the West Bank in 10 years.

The Israeli military said the slain UNRWA employee had attacked Israeli troops with an explosive device. He was employed by UNRWA but had already come to the attention of the occupation forces through ‘terrorist activities’. This information cannot currently be independently verified.

The Israeli military also said it killed five gunmen in a counter-terrorism operation in the northern West Bank. They were militants and were killed in a targeted airstrike on the village of Tubas, the military said in a statement.

The Palestinians want to use a new resolution at the UN General Assembly to pressure Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. Many countries have called for a meeting of the UN’s largest body to vote on a resolution that would force the UN’s top court to implement its legal opinion on the Middle East conflict. The meeting is scheduled to take place on September 17.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled in a legal opinion in July that the occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal and must be stopped as soon as possible. Israel has ignored it. The UN General Assembly is now set to vote on a draft resolution that, among other things, would require Israel to “cease its illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory within 12 months.”

At the Madrid conference, Arab and European leaders again called for a two-state solution. The US withdrew one of its two aircraft carriers from the Red Sea. Read Friday’s developments.