Italy on Thursday accused Israel of possible “war crimes” after the UN force deployed between Lebanon and Israel denounced “repeated” Israeli fire on its positions, including one which injured two peacekeepers.
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The Israeli army assured that it had asked UN soldiers to remain “in protected spaces” before shooting “next to” their base, but Washington, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Dublin and Jakarta protested, as well as the UN Security Council, meeting Thursday in New York.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), of which 10,000 soldiers are deployed in the south of the country, has been calling for an end to hostilities since cross-border shooting for a year between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah turned open war.
On Thursday, UNIFIL announced that “two peacekeepers were injured after an Israeli army Merkava tank fired on an observation tower of the UNIFIL headquarters” in Naqoura, “directly hitting it and causing it to fall » of two men.
Of Indonesian nationality, these men are “still in hospital”, but “their injuries are not serious”.
“War crimes”
Immediately, Italy, 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 Italian Defense Minister, Guido Crosetto, estimated that these Israeli shots against UNIFIL “could constitute war crimes and certainly represent very serious violations of the norms of international humanitarian law”.
Madrid denounced a “serious violation of international law”, demanding that the security of the Blue Helmets be “guaranteed”.
The United States said it was “very concerned”, urging its ally “not to threaten the security of UN peacekeeping forces”.
France “condemned any attack on the security of UNIFIL”. Before this incident, Paris had requested a new meeting of the UN Security Council devoted to Lebanon.
Its 15 members, in the presence of Israel, Lebanon and Iran in session, protested and the head of the Blue Helmets, French diplomat Jean-Pierre Lacroix, warned that “the security and safety of the maintaining soldiers of peace were increasingly in danger.
“Israel above the law”
The Indonesian ambassador to the UN, Hari Prabowo, saw in this incident “a clear demonstration that Israel places itself above international law, impunity and our common values of peace”.
France also announced its decision taken with Italy to meet next week with Spain and Ireland, contributors to UNIFIL.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, whose country has around 370 men in the Force, criticized in X “an irresponsible act”.
“Israeli soldiers also fired on a UN position in Ras al-Naqoura, hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers had taken shelter and damaging vehicles and communications systems,” UNIFIL said.
On Wednesday, “Israeli soldiers deliberately shot at the position’s cameras, rendering them inoperable, and deliberately shot at a position where tripartite meetings were regularly held before this conflict broke out,” according to the same source.
On Thursday, Hezbollah claimed to have “destroyed an Israeli tank which was advancing” towards Ras al-Naqoura and claimed to have “targeted Israeli troops who were trying to evacuate wounded soldiers from Ras al-Naqoura with salvos of rockets”.
The pro-Iranian armed formation added that it had fired rockets at Israeli soldiers who were advancing towards the Lebanese border town of Meiss El Jabal.
“Extremely dangerous”
On Sunday, UNIFIL denounced operations by the Israeli army near one of its positions, deeming them “extremely dangerous”.
She announced on October 5 that she would “maintain her positions,” despite a request from the Israeli army to “move some of them.”
The Lebanese Islamist movement said it had called on its fighters not to endanger the peacekeepers.
Since the start of the escalation, UNIFIL has been pressing the two belligerents to implement Security Council resolution 1701.
This text, which marked the end of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, stipulates that only UN Peacekeeping Forces and the Lebanese army can be deployed in southern Lebanon.
But Hezbollah maintained a presence in this region and Israel launched ground operations against the pro-Iranian movement on September 30.
