Tension is still rising on the border between Lebanon and Israel. This Thursday, October 10, UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, accused Israel of having “deliberately” fired on several positions at its headquarters in Naqoura, in the southwest of the country where two peacekeepers of Indonesian nationality were injured.
The two soldiers were in an observation tower of the UNIFIL headquarters targeted by an Israeli army Merkava tank, specifies the press release from the UN mission. The shot “directly hit her and caused the fall” of the two men, still hospitalized according to the same press release.
The shootings “could constitute war crimes”
“Israeli soldiers also fired on a UN position in Naqoura, hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers had found shelter and damaging vehicles and communications systems,” UNIFIL also specifies. While the day before, Wednesday, “Israeli soldiers deliberately shot at the position’s cameras, rendering them inoperable, and also deliberately fired at a position where tripartite meetings were regularly held before this conflict broke out.” , according to the same source.
Immediately, Rome, the leading Western country contributing to UNIFIL in terms of personnel, with nearly 900 soldiers mobilized, denounced “intolerable” acts and summoned the Israeli ambassador for a “firm protest”. The shooting of Israeli troops against the UN force deployed between Lebanon and Israel “could constitute war crimes”, accused Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Thursday evening, according to whom this incident “is absolutely not admissible, in addition to being in flagrant contradiction with international law”.
Shortly after, France and Italy decided to organize a meeting next week with other contributing European countries, including Spain and Ireland, according to the French Ministry of the Armed Forces. France said it was “awaiting explanations” from Israel, while Madrid denounced a “serious violation of international law”, demanding that the security of the Blue Helmets be “guaranteed”.
10,000 peacekeepers deployed in total
Around 10,000 peacekeepers, including 700 French, are deployed along the “blue line”. This buffer zone drawn on the border by the UN in 2000 to mark the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the country of Cedar, after an occupation that began in 1982. The town of Naqoura has been home to the headquarters of UNIFIL for decades. Since October 7, 2023, several alerts have been triggered, but no incident as serious as that targeting two peacekeepers had until then been recorded. In recent days, the general staff of the Israeli armed forces had asked peacekeeping troops to evacuate the area around their camp 6-52, the scene of intense clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.
The attack on the UNIFIL base camp comes against a backdrop of intensifying clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. But also tensions between the peacekeeping force and the Israeli army. UNIFIL thus underlined that it was “essential” for Israel but also for Hezbollah and other actors to “ensure the security” of its personnel and its installations, noting that Thursday’s episode took place then that fighting intensified, “causing widespread destruction of towns and villages in southern Lebanon.”
Hezbollah has de facto control over much of southern Lebanon, and Israeli officials have repeatedly criticized the U.N. peacekeeping mission for failing to deter Hezbollah operations in that part. of the country. As fighting has intensified since September 30, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has given up its patrols and remains confined to its bases and observation posts. Installed in 1978 to act as a buffer against Israel, UNIFIL was once again rendered powerless, becoming a target in the midst of the clashes.