On Thursday morning, UNIFIL announced that “two peacekeepers were injured after an Israeli army Merkava tank fired on an observation tower of UNIFIL headquarters” in Naqoura, “directly hitting it and causing the fall” of the two men.
Of Indonesian nationality according to a UNIFIL spokesperson, the latter are “still in hospital” but “their injuries are not serious”.
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”.
“An obligation”
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto then estimated that the firing by Israeli troops against UNIFIL “could constitute war crimes”.
“The hostile actions repeatedly committed by Israeli forces against the UNIFIL base could constitute war crimes and certainly represent very serious violations of the norms of international humanitarian law,” the minister said during a press conference. .
Madrid denounced a “serious violation of international law”, demanding that the security of the Blue Helmets be “guaranteed”.
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For its part, France “waits for explanations”, indicated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris.
“The protection of peacekeepers is an obligation imposed on all parties to a conflict,” the ministry underlined in a press release, insisting on the fact that Paris “condemns any attack on the security of UNIFIL”.
France also announced that it had decided to organize with Italy a meeting next week with the other contributing European countries – Spain and Ireland.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, who has around 370 men in UNIFIL, slammed X as “an irresponsible act” adding that “this must stop”.
“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 in a statement. a press release.
On 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. .
“Extremely dangerous”
Thursday morning, Hezbollah claimed to have “destroyed an Israeli tank which was advancing” towards Ras al-Naqoura, on the border.
He then indicated that he had “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 Maïs al-Jabal.
Hezbollah still claims to have fired “significant salvos of rockets” into northern Israel, which borders southern Lebanon.
On Sunday, UNIFIL denounced operations by the Israeli army near one of its positions in the area of the border village of Maroun al-Ras, deeming them “extremely dangerous”.
It announced on October 5 “to maintain its positions”, despite a request from the Israeli army to “move some of them”.
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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 calling on the two belligerents to apply UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
This resolution, which marked the end of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, stipulates that only UN peacekeeping forces and the Lebanese army can be deployed in southern Lebanon.
