(Beirut) The UN peace force in Lebanon on Sunday demanded “explanations” from the Israeli army, accusing it of maneuvers targeting it, after Israel, which is fighting on the ground against Lebanese Hezbollah, called for UN to “immediately shelter” these troops, deployed as a buffer between the two countries.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported that two Israeli tanks “forced their way” into one of its positions on the border on Sunday, before firing “caused smoke” which triggered “skin irritations and gastrointestinal reactions in 15 peacekeepers.
Criticizing “shocking violations”, she also accused the Israeli army of having prevented her from carrying out a “crucial logistical movement” the day before.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had just urged the UN Secretary General to “protect UNIFIL” […] right away”, after denunciations on Friday by this force of “repeated” and “deliberate” Israeli fire on its positions in southern Lebanon, which placed Israel under the fire of international criticism.
The UN, with which Israel maintains terrible relations, has raised its voice at a time when the Israeli army is intensifying its strikes in Lebanon, and fighting on the ground against Hezbollah.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Khiam, southern Lebanon, October 13, 2024.
The pro-Iranian Lebanese movement said it was fighting Israeli soldiers “with automatic weapons” and “rockets” on Sunday in at least four villages bordering Israel, with the Israeli army reporting “face-to-face fighting”.
It reported capturing a fighter from this formation in a tunnel in southern Lebanon, where it launched a ground offensive on September 30.
After weakening the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza, Israel moved the front of the war to Lebanon, with the objective of moving Hezbollah away from the border and allowing the return to northern Israel of some 60,000 displaced inhabitants. by rocket fire, carried out for a year by the Lebanese formation in support of Hamas.
The country will not allow Hezbollah to return to border areas, even after the withdrawal of its soldiers, its Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Sunday.
Since the launch on September 23 of massive strikes against Hezbollah strongholds, in the southern suburbs of Beirut and the south and east of Lebanon, the Israeli army has decapitated its leadership, notably killing its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The war in Lebanon and that of Gaza, triggered by the unprecedented attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023 on Israeli soil, is coupled with an escalation between Iran and Israel, whose leaders are threatening to retaliate to a Iranian missile attack on 1er october.
PHOTO MOHAMMAD ZAATARI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hezbollah rescue workers use an excavator to remove rubble from buildings destroyed Saturday evening by Israeli airstrikes, in the town of Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon, October 13, 2024.
The Pentagon announced on Sunday the deployment in Israel of an American THAAD high-altitude anti-missile defense system “to help strengthen the air defenses” of the Israeli ally against Iran.
Tehran has “no red lines” to defend its interests, and is “totally ready to face a war situation,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi previously warned on Sunday during a visit to Baghdad.
“Repeated” shots
UNIFIL denounced on Friday “repeated” and “deliberate” Israeli fire on its positions in southern Lebanon, subsequently reporting five peacekeepers injured in 48 hours.
“We regret that the UNIFIL soldiers were injured and are doing everything […] to prevent this from happening again. But the simplest and most obvious way […] is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” the Israeli prime minister said.
Defying international criticism, he stressed that his country had requested “repeatedly”, in vain, the withdrawal of UNIFIL from the combat zones, and judged that the refusal of the UN to evacuate them by making them “hostages of the Hezbollah.”
Pope Francis called on Sunday to “respect” these peace troops, with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati denouncing “a new refusal [israélien] to comply with international law.
Since October 2023, more than 2,100 people have been killed in Lebanon, including more than 1,200 since September 23, according to an AFP count based on official figures. The UN has recorded nearly 700,000 displaced people.
Offensive in Jabalia
In the devastated and besieged Gaza Strip, the Israeli army continues the offensive it relaunched in the north, mainly shelling the Jabalia region, where it accuses Hamas of seeking to reconstitute its forces.
PHOTO OMAR AL-QATTAA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A young Palestinian reacts to seeing the bodies of his loved ones killed during an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on October 12, 2024.
On Sunday, she said she had eliminated “dozens” of fighters there. According to Mr. Netanyahu, the army is “dismantling Hamas strongholds” in the area.
Hamas condemned a “criminal military campaign” in the area.
The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people in Israel, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures and including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in Gaza.
At least 42,227 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, in the Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.