JERUSALEM/NEW YORK - The United Nations said on Sunday Israeli tanks had burst through the gates of a base of its peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks denounced by its own allies.

The UNIFIL peacekeeping force said two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate of a base and forcibly entered before dawn on Sunday morning. After the tanks left, shells exploded 100 meters away, releasing smoke which blew across the base and sickened UN personnel, it said in a statement.

In its version of events, the Israeli military said militants of Hezbollah had fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops, wounding 25 of them. The attack was very close to a UNIFIL post and a tank helping evacuate the casualties under fire then backed into the UNIFIL post, it said.

"It is not storming a base. It is not trying to enter a base. It was a tank under heavy fire, mass casualty event, backing up to get out of harm's way," the military's international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told reporters.

In a statement, the military said it used a smoke screen to provide cover for the evacuation of the wounded soldiers but its actions posed no danger to the UN peacekeeping force.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: "The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones."

Guterres paid tribute to UNIFIL's peacekeepers, who "remain in all positions", UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement issued later on Sunday, adding that "the UN flag continues to fly."

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The secretary-general reiterated a warning that peacekeepers must not be targeted, he said.

"Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime," Dujarric said.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call on Sunday with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, "reinforced the importance of Israel taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL forces and Lebanese Armed Forces", according to a readout of the call.

Austin also pressed Gallant on the need for Israel "to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway to provide security for civilians on both sides of the border as soon as feasible", it said.

Conflict flaring for a year

Hezbollah, which Israel has been battling on the ground in southern Lebanon since it launched an incursion at the start of this month, denies Israel's accusation that it uses the proximity of peacekeepers for protection.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah resumed a year ago when the group began firing rockets at Israeli positions in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza conflict and has sharply escalated in recent weeks.

On Sunday, Hezbollah said it attacked a camp of the Israeli military's Golani Brigade camp in Binyamina in northern Israel with a "swarm of drones". Some of the unmanned aircraft, which included drone models Hezbollah has not used before, penetrated Israeli air defense radars without being detected, the group said in a statement.

Israel's military said four of its soldiers were killed and seven severely injured in the incident. The incident was being examined, the military said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, typically one of Israel's most vocal supporters among Western European leaders, spoke to Netanyahu by phone on Sunday and denounced the "unacceptable" Israeli attacks, her government said.

Italy has more than a thousand troops in the 10,000-strong UNIFIL force, making it one of the biggest contributors of personnel. France and Spain, which each have nearly 700 soldiers in the force, have also condemned the Israeli attacks.

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The presence of UNIFIL puts peacekeepers from 50 separate countries in harm's way, in a force initially set up in southern Lebanon in 1978.

The area has seen decades of conflict, with Israel invading in 1982, occupying southern Lebanon until 2000 and again fighting a major five-week conflict against Hezbollah in 2006, which ended with a ceasefire monitored by UNIFIL.

Israel's assault against Hezbollah over the past three weeks has uprooted 1.2 million Lebanese and inflicted an unprecedented blow on the group by killing most of its senior leadership.

Lebanon's government says more than 2,100 people have been killed and 10,000 wounded in over a year of fighting, mainly over the past few weeks. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but includes scores of women and children.

Region on tenterhooks

Israeli officials say UNIFIL has failed in its mission of upholding UN Resolution 1701, passed after the 2006 war, which calls for the border area of southern Lebanon to be free of weapons or troops other than those of the Lebanese state.

The Middle East meanwhile remains on high alert for Israel to retaliate against Iran for an Oct 1 barrage of long range missiles launched in response to Israel's assaults on Lebanon.

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Iran said on Sunday it has "no red lines" in defending itself. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi's comments appeared intended to counter suggestions that Iran would absorb an Israeli strike without a response, as it did earlier this year when Israel last struck Iran after a volley of Iranian missiles.