After two incidences in 48 hours, US President Joe Biden stated that he is “absolutely, positively” asking Israel to cease firing at UN peacekeepers during its fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The incident that resulted in the injuries of two Sri Lankan soldiers serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) was caused by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday.
The Israeli army said that after spotting a threat, soldiers from the IDF operating near the Unifil installation in Naqoura opened fire. The incident will be looked into “at the highest levels,” the army said.
Two Indonesian troops from Unfil were hurt on Thursday after they fell from an observation tower that was hit by gunfire from an Israeli tank.
In a united statement, the presidents of France, Italy, and Spain denounced Israel’s actions, stating that they were unjustified and ought to stop right away.
The foreign ministry of Sri Lanka declared that it “strongly condemns” the strike by the IDF that left two of its soldiers hurt.
The commander of UN peacekeeping stated that there was probable direct gunfire against UN posts in southern Lebanon, but he did not assign blame for the incidents.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on the BBC’s Newshour program, “For example, we have a case where a tower was hit by a fire and also damages to cameras at one of the positions – which obviously to us very much looked like direct fire.”
While Israel persists in its invasion of southern Lebanon, the IDF and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah continued to fire missiles and rockets across the Israel-Lebanon border.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) reported the detection of around 100 rockets crossing into northern Israel from Lebanon within half an hour on Friday. The Lebanese ministry of health reported three deaths in an Israeli raid on Sidon and two soldiers killed after Israeli forces targeted an army post in Kafra. In Beirut, emergency workers continued to search through the wreckage of buildings hit by two Israeli air strikes on Thursday.
Israeli forces launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon last month as they escalated their response to rocket fire from Hezbollah. Hezbollah and Israel have been trading near-daily cross-border fire since last October, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas carried out a deadly attack in southern Israel. The IDF has said the UN post struck in Naqoura on Friday was about 164ft away from the source of the threat identified by soldiers and had told peacekeeping troops to stay in protected spaces at the time.
Unifil said Israeli military vehicles had knocked over barriers at another UN site in Labbouneh, closer to the border with Israel. Israel argues that Unifil has failed to stabilize the region and has asked peacekeepers to withdraw northwards so it can confront Hezbollah. Over the past three weeks, Israel has dramatically escalated its campaign against Hezbollah, intensifying air strikes against southern Lebanon and southern parts of Beirut, assassinating Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, and launching a ground invasion.
(BBC)
