UN peacekeepers in Lebanon say Israeli forces have fired at them again

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon said on Wednesday that Israeli forces had fired on one of its positions in the southern part of the country. This was the latest in a series of attacks in which the mission said five of its personnel were injured.

“This morning, peacekeepers at a position near Kafer Kela observed an IDF Merkava tank firing at their guard tower. Two cameras were destroyed and the tower was damaged,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement. “Once again we see direct and apparently deliberate fire on a UNIFIL position.”

“We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligation to ensure the security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times,” the mission added.

The IDF said Wednesday that “UNIFIL infrastructure sites and forces are not a target.”

The incident reported on Wednesday follows further attacks by IDF troops on UNIFIL positions in southern Lebanon. Last week, two Indonesian peacekeepers were injured when an IDF tank fired on an observation tower at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naquora. UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the incident as “unbearable” and said it “cannot be repeated”.

On Sunday, two IDF tanks entered a UNIFIL post in Ramyah and demanded that personnel turn off the lights. IDF troops reportedly stayed there for 45 minutes and set off smoke bombs, sickening scores of peacekeepers. The IDF admitted these acts and claimed they occurred in an attempt to rescue wounded Israeli soldiers under fire.

On the same day, Israel called on UNIFIL to withdraw its troops from Lebanon’s border with Israel to keep them “out of danger.”

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for Guterres, responded that “peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.”

Djuarric noted that UNIFIL positions have been compromised by Israeli forces 20 times since the IDF began its invasion of Lebanon earlier this month.

“Five peacekeepers were injured in these incidents, including one peacekeeper who sustained a gunshot wound,” he said.

These incidents come amid Israel’s escalation of its years-long war against Gaza – which has left more than 150,000 Palestinians dead, wounded or missing and for which the country is facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice – into Lebanon, where Hezbollah has launched rocket attacks and other projectiles targeting Israel since immediately after the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

Israel’s invasion and bombing of Lebanon – which included the surprise detonation of thousands of pagers and other communications devices – has killed at least 2,350 people, injured over 10,000 others and forcibly displaced more than 1.3 million people since last October, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

An Israeli airstrike on the municipal headquarters of the Lebanese city of Nabatea on Wednesday killed at least 16 people, including Mayor Ahmad Kheil, who was leading a crisis response meetingAlJazeera. More than 50 others were injured in the attack.

“The Israeli government has made it clear that it intends to expand its war throughout the region and resettle areas whose indigenous populations it is decimating,” Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in response to the airstrike. “These are the actions of a rogue government that the Biden administration must stop enabling before more innocents are slaughtered and more chaos spreads.”