The Israeli military said its forces fired at a threat near a UN peacekeeping mission position on Friday, October 11, in southern Lebanon, and acknowledged that a "hit" was responsible for wounding two people, after an inital examination of the incident.

Israeli "soldiers operating in southern Lebanon identified an immediate threat against them. The soldiers responded with fire toward the threat. An initial examination indicates that during the incident, a hit was identified on a UNIFIL post, located approximately 50 meters (yards) from the source of the threat, resulting in the injury of two UNIFIL personnel," the statement said.

It came after the UN mission said two of its peacekeepers were injured after explosions close to an observation tower at its Naqura headquarters. It was the second incident of its kind reported by UNIFIL in two days, after two other Blue Helmets were injured on Thursday, sparking global condemnation.

Hours before Friday's incident, "the IDF instructed UNIFIL personnel to enter into protected spaces and remain there. This instruction was in place at the time of the incident," the military added.

The statement came shortly after the military said it was "conducting a thorough review" to determine details of attacks on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, after the four mission members were injured. "The IDF expresses deep concern over incidents of this kind and is currently conducting a thorough review at the highest levels of command to determine the details," the military said.

UN peacekeepers patrolling the Lebanese side of the border with Israel have been thrust into the violence of the Israel-Hezbollah war that has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, and displaced a million others.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Friday, October 11 warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country.

"The Israeli enemy army uses the homes" of Israelis in north Israel and has military bases inside residential "neighborhoods in major occupied cities such as Haifa, Tiberias, Acre," it said in a statement in Arabic and Hebrew.

'Totally unacceptable'

Meanwhile, US special envoy to Lebanon Amos Hochstein on Friday told local media that the United States was working "non-stop" towards a ceasefire in the country.

"We want the whole conflict to end," he told Lebanese television channel LBC from Washington. "We are working on this non-stop."

Reviewing the latest developments, Hochstein said reports that Israel hit UN peacekeeping positions in south Lebanon on Friday were "totally unacceptable."

"We have a continued campaign of bombing in Beirut. It needs to stop," he said.

"We're trying to bring this bombing to a close. We don't like this campaign of bombings in densely populated Beirut," Hochstein said. Earlier on Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.