#united nations interim force in lebanon

[timelessnewsnow]

In a significant move, 34 countries contributing troops to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) issued a joint statement on October 12, 2024, condemning ongoing attacks on peacekeepers in the region.

Read more 👆🏻

[phaon1]

A spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil) said it is “alarmed” and “deeply concerned” by the Israeli military’s activity in the area where peacekeeping troops are based.

Read whole story below

[probablyasocialecologist]

Israeli forces fired at UNIFIL headquarters in southern Lebanon, injuring two Indonesian peacekeepers. UNIFIL – the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon – said on Thursday that two peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force’s headquarters in the border area town of Naqoura, causing them to fall. The peacekeeping organisation, which consists of about 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 countries and was established in 1978, said Israeli forces had “deliberately” fired at its positions along the border.

10 October 2024

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Seth Mandel

In the summer of 2000, Israeli forces pulled out of South Lebanon, where they had maintained a security buffer between Hezbollah and the Israeli civilians in northern Israel. A few months later, Israel was rewarded for this gesture when Hezbollah ambushed three soldiers on the Israeli side of the border and took them captive.

The Iran-backed terrorists disguised themselves as employees of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and attached UN markings to the trucks used in the attack. The next day, UN workers tried to tow away the trucks but were stopped by Hezbollah operatives. The UN workers turned the vehicles over to Hezbollah.

But there was a twist. The UN had videotaped the scene, which was filled with evidence of the previous day’s kidnapping.

What the UN did with that tape is crucial to understanding the UN’s role in Lebanon and in shaping the conflict up to the present. With that tape, the UN did… nothing.

The news this weekend was saturated with coverage of UNIFIL blaming Israel for putting its cardboard peacekeepers in danger while the IDF responds to Hezbollah’s continued attacks. Israel, in turn, exposed the fact that the UN has allowed Hezbollah to construct tunnels and weapons depots under its nose, protecting the terrorists from IDF counterstrikes.

But all of this begins back in 2000, with that videotape.

Israel’s Labor government pleaded with the UN to turn over the recording, which could help Israel in its search for the captives. Time was, as always, of the essence: Every minute that went by put the kidnapped Israelis’ lives in more danger.

Instead of turning over the tape, the UN lied repeatedly by claiming there was no tape. Eventually, scenes from the tape leaked, revealing what everyone knew the entire time: Of course the tape existed. At that point, the UN publicly admitted they’d had the tape all along.

By then, the soldiers were dead. In 2004, Israel would trade hundreds of terrorists in Israeli jails in return for the bodies of the three soldiers.

There was some irony here: The Hezbollah terrorists dressed as UNIFIL and then UNIFIL aided and abetted their getaway and helped ensure the murder of the soldiers. What had started with terrorists impersonating UN members ended with the UN impersonating Hezbollah. The two were on the same team, cooperating in acts of profound evil. It was manifestly unclear where the UN ended and Hezbollah began.

Sound familiar? It should: It’s also the story of UNRWA, the Gaza-based UN agency that has become an adjunct of Hamas. Its members participated in the Oct. 7 attacks last year and even helped hold Israeli hostages. The head of the UNRWA teachers union turned out to be a high-level Hamasnik with ties to Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of Oct. 7. We even have video of an UNRWA worker dragging away the body of a murdered Israeli alongside a Hamas terrorist. Where does one end and the other begin?

And by the way, the exact date of that Hezbollah kidnapping 24 years ago after which the UN hid the videotape and obstructed Israel’s attempts to get its soldiers back? Oct. 7, 2000.

This pattern would repeat itself throughout UNIFIL’s tenure in South Lebanon. Israel says the time has come for that tenure to end. Over the weekend, Israeli officials guided journalists along the border so they could see for themselves that Hezbollah is stronger with UNIFIL’s presence than without it.

One of those journalists, the Telegraph’s Jotam Confino, posted pictures and video of a UN compound with a lookout tower 100 yards away from a Hezbollah tunnel entrance. To state the obvious: It’s not a hole in the ground. It’s a tunnel, and constructing such a tunnel requires extremely noisy and conspicuous machinery as well as the regular presence of Hezbollah operatives. These tunnels and weapons caches along the border area were built, and are maintained, with the full knowledge of the United Nations—in fact, in full view of the United Nations.

If you approach a UN compound on South Lebanon you are probably standing above a Hezbollah tunnel or bunker. Where does one end and the other begin?

[mapsontheweb]

Countries that have soldiers deployed as part of the UNIFIL - United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

Now Netanyahu is referring to UN peacekeepers, who are simply there doing their job, human shields

"The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon established by the U.N. Security Council."

How long before Biden signs off on another check for Israel to kill UN employees?

[jackoshadows]

Ireland continuing to be the exception and showing the genocidal West how it's actually done

Israel Defense Forces tells Ireland and Unifil to remove peacekeepers from Lebanese border outpost

Request rejected on day when 24 Irish citizens managed to leave country with Dutch and Canadian assistance

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has told Ireland to remove its peacekeepers from an outpost on the border with Lebanon as its invasion of the country continues.

Sources confirmed the request was made to the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and individual countries contributing troops, including Ireland. Israel has been told the troops will remain in place.

There is one Irish outpost on the Lebanese-Israeli border, which is known as the Blue Line. This outpost, designated post 6-52, is manned by a single Irish platoon who are responsible for observing the border and reporting on incursions.

It is understood the Irish Government has informed Israeli officials that Unifil troop movements are a matter for the UN and its force commander on the ground. Unifil has told Israel it will not be removing the troops.

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Scenes from the violent firebelts rocking the Shaboura Refugee Camp, in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, following bombing by the Israeli occupation forces on Friday morning. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

DAY 231 OF ISRAELI OCCUPATION GENOCIDE IN GAZA: U.S. TO BE INVOLVED IN GAZA SECURITY PLANS AFTER WAR, BORDER CROSSINGS REMAIN CLOSED, HUMANITARIAN AID DELIVERIES SLOW TO A DRIP, TORTURE WIDESPREAD IN ISRAELI PRISONS

On 231st day of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 9 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 91 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 112 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted, as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

The Biden administration intends to appoint a "civilian advisor" to oversee a "mostly Palestinian" peacekeeping force after the Israeli occupation's genocidal war in Gaza comes to an end, suggesting the administration intends to be deeply involved in Gaza's affairs long after the end of the war. That's according to four American officials speaking with Politico, an American online newspaper, under the condition of anonymity.

According to Politico, an American civilian advisor based in the Egyptian Sinai or Jordan would "advise" the commanding officer of an interim peacekeeping force composed of Palestinians, but also forces from local Arab countries such as Egypt, Morrocco and the United Arab Emirates, which would work to "maintain security and avoid an insurgency that could plunge the enclave into more turmoil."

The coded language of the Politico piece seems to suggest the United States would use the proxy of a potential peacekeeping force to suppress the Palestinian resistance in order to bolster the defenses of the Israeli occupation.

The US would help protect the Israeli entity's internal security within the borders of occupied Palestine, while the Israeli occupation could refocus on potential external threats such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran.

At the same time, the United States would work with regional players to create a "Palestinian Council", made up of "Palestinians from Gaza," to "serve as an interim governing structure."

Politico says fierce debates are raging within the Biden administration, and with America's regional partners, about the makeup of such a peacekeeping force and what authorities it might be given, as well as intense debates over the governing structure of Gaza and what level of US involvement there would be following a potential end to the war.

“We have talked about a number of different formulas for some kind of interim security forces in Gaza,” a senior administration official told Politico, “and we have talked to a lot of partners about how the United States could support that with all of our capabilities from outside Gaza.”

Any potential force comprised of Palestinians would also face intense push-back from the Israeli occupation authorities, particularly Netanyahu's far-right regime, which opposes any kind of scenario that gives recognition to a Palestinian State.

In other news, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, said she has received information about the torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians detained in prisons overseen by the Israeli Prisons Authority and also in Israeli occupation army camps, according to reporting published in the Palestinian media.

According to local reporting, Edwards, who has been conducting a ""thorough review over the past two months," discusses information she received describing cases of Palestinian prisoners who "were beaten and detained while blindfolded and handcuffed for long periods in cells, in addition to being deprived of sleep and threatened with physical and sexual violence."

Edwards said the information she received also included details suggesting that Palestinian detainees were subjected to "degrading treatment," including photos taken of them in "offensive positions."

Edwards, an independent human rights expert previously appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, said she raised her concerns for the mistreatment of Palestinian detainees with the Israeli authorities, asking them to investigate and to give herself, along with "international human rights monitors and humanitarian observers" access to Palestinian prisoners.

Edwards said It was "very important that there be independent inspections," and urged the occupation authorities to "investigate all complaints and reports of torture or ill-treatment promptly, fairly, effectively and transparently."

She also added that officials from all levels of the Israeli occupation's prison system "must be held accountable."

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation continued its mass murder campaign across the entirety of the Gaza Strip, slaughtering dozens of Palestinians, including large numbers of women and children.

At the same time, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued its closure of the Rafah and Karm Abu Salem border crossings for the 18th consecutive day, further preventing thousands of humanitarian and medical aid trucks, along with fuel deliveries, from entering the Gaza Strip, while also preventing hundreds, if not thousands, of severely sick and wounded Palestinians from leaving Gaza for medical treatment abroad.

At the same time, the Israeli occupation continues to deliberately put Gaza's hospitals out of service, launching violent raids of hospitals and medical centers, while also cutting off their supply of fuel for electricity generators.

According to local medical sources, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, one of the largest hospitals in the Strip, has lost power due to running out of fuel, portending a healthcare catastrophe for the Palestinian population of central Gaza.

Similarly, the Kuwait Specialized Hospital in Rafah City is also facing a potential shutdown due to continued attacks by the Israeli occupation army, along with a shortage of fuel for generators.

Occupation forces are also advancing towards Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, while all the remaining hospitals still functioning in Gaza are operating well beyond their capacities.

Gaza's healthcare system is also being overwhelmed by the dead and wounded in the Israeli occupation's ongoing bombardment.

In just a few examples, occupation warplanes bombed a residential apartment last night belonging to the Al-Ayoubi family, in the Shabiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 civilians, including women and children, while a number of others were wounded in the strike.

In another war crime, Zionist fighter jets bombed a warehouse for the distribution of humanitarian aid in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, leading to the deaths of no less than 12 civilians, mostly women and children, while dozens of others were wounded.

Another series of occupation airstrikes targeted house in the Al-Fakhoura neighborhood, west of the Jabalia Camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, murdering another 5 Palestinians and wounding several others.

The slaughter continued when Zionist air forces bombarded a residential home belonging to the Al-Masry family, in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, killing two citizens.

IOF artillery detatchments also shelled several neighborhoods of Gaza City, including the Al-Zaytoun, Tal al-Hawa, Al-Rimal, Al-Janoubi, Al-Sabra, Sheikh Ajlin, and Juhr al-Dik neighborhoods, while occupation soldiers and armored vehicles continue advancing towards Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya where they surrounded some medical staff and patients.

In another criminal assault, IOF warplanes bombed another residential apartment belonging to the Abu Al-Laban family on Al-Nafaq Street, north of Gaza City, resulting in a number of casualties.

Zionist soldiers and armored vehicles also fired machine guns in the vicinity of the Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque and Street 8 in Gaza City, while occupation gunboats fired missiles towards the coast of the city.

Two more civilians were killed in yet more occupation airstrikes along the coast of the town of Al-Zawaida, in the central Gaza Strip.

South of Gaza, Israeli occupation quadcopters fly near the European Gaza Hospital, while at the same time, Israeli Merkava tanks advanced from neighborhoods east of Rafah towards the central areas of the city, and along the outskirts of the Shaboura Camp, coinciding with the firing of IOF missiles, shells and hails of gunfire.

In Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, at least four Palestinians were killed after an Israeli quadcopter drone dropped a bomb on a group of civilians, while occupation aircraft bombarded Al-Rashid Street, adjacent to Al-Nuseirat, with no casualties were reported in the strike.

Occupation bombing and shelling also targeted the Juhr al-Dik area north of the Bureij Camp.

Israeli warplanes also participated in the assassination of Major General Diyaa Al-Sharafa, the Assistant Commander of the National Security Forces in the Gaza Strip, with four other officers wounded in the strike as Al-Sharafa conducted an inspection tour near the Saraya junction in central Gaza.

Meanwhile, for the 13th consecutive day, the Israeli occupation army continued its incursion into Jabalia, in the north of Gaza, coinciding with intense volleys of missile and bomb strikes.

Communications with staff at Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia continued to be cut off as medical personnel and patients were forced to evacuate after IOF soldiers stormed the hospital.

In Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, large explosions continue to be heard in neighborhoods east of the city, along with downtown Rafah and south of the city.

At least one civilian was killed, and others wounded, following an Israeli bombing in the vicinity of the Kiir Junction in central Rafah, while occupation artillery shelling and gunfire from drones and helicopters continue intermittently in central Rafah and east of the city.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll has risen once again, now exceeding 35'800 Palestinians killed, including over 15'000 children and upwards of 10'000 women, while another 80'200 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

May 24th, 2024.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[humusboii2thereturnoftheking]

Sky News Arabia reports that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has found Hezbollah to be responsible for launching the rocket that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights’ Majdal Shams last Saturday.

This is directed at any Hezbo fanboys and fangirls that seem to have forgotten how Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into a war with Israel back in October 7th, directed to help Hamas by Iran.

As an Israeli, I can't wait for this BS to end

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil condemns Israeli attacks on UN bases in Lebanon

Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday (Oct. 14) condemned Israel's attacks on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), stating that such actions violate international law.

"Brazil strongly condemns the October 13 invasion of a UNIFIL peacekeeping mission base in Lebanon by Israeli armed forces. Two tanks destroyed the main gate and entered the base, where they remained for 45 minutes while shots were fired in the neighborhood," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The Brazilian government highlighted that this marked the third consecutive day of Israeli attacks on UNIFIL personnel or facilities since last week, which left five members of the peacekeeping mission injured. " Brazil repudiates the systematic violations verified in recent days," the statement read, noting that Brazilian military forces led the UNIFIL maritime mission from 2011 to 2021.

“Deliberate attacks against members of UN peacekeeping missions and facilities are absolutely unacceptable and constitute a serious violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and UN Security Council resolutions,” added the Foreign Ministry.

Continue reading.

[eretzyisrael]

by Jonathan Feldstein

Let’s be clear, every death and all the destruction taking place in Lebanon now is because of Hezbollah, and its Iranian Islamic patron. The Islamic regime has been funding and arming Hezbollah for decades, having hijacked Lebanon and putting all its residents in harm’s way. The long-range missiles being destroyed in Lebanese civilians and garages are not part of a “terrorist chic” interior design trend. It is a central pillar of the “Axis of Resistance’s” decades-long plan to eradicate Israel.

Minimally, the UN is complicit, guilty of enabling all this. It’s too egregious to be a passive oversight. At best, they get an assist in the death and destruction that’s happened so far, and what may come.  It’s all the UN’s fault.

The best example is the flagrant violation of UN Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Before the ink dried, Hezbollah and Lebanon were ignoring the text, and the UN turned a blind eye. 

Resolution 1701 requires "full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state." 

The Lebanese cabinet approved 1701, yet Hezbollah never had any intent to implement any of it.  Already entrenched into the Lebanese parliament, with a military arguably stronger than the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah is the authority that calls the shots in the country.  It has nothing to do with Hezbollah’s presence south of the Litani River. Resolution 1701 says Hezbollah cannot exist as a military in Lebanon, period. The UN and its puppet UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) never tried to enforce that.

Resolution 1701 was never implemented. While Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah never did.  Not only did they not withdraw, but Hezbollah significantly increased their weapons in terms of quantity and quality, all backed by Iran.  Today, they have an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles of all varieties that can strike all of Israel, and numerous drones as well.  Not only did they not withdraw but Hezbollah has become deeply entrenched, excavating terror tunnels, weapons stashes, airstrips, and military installations.

[athena5898]

The World Health Organization declared on Saturday that Lebanon is grappling with a severe health crisis, revealing that 73 health sector workers have lost their lives due to the ongoing Israeli attacks.  In a statement shared on its X platform, the organization highlighted the alarming toll, "Lebanon is facing a health crisis. There are 1,974 dead, 9,384 wounded, and 346,209 displaced." The organization also pointed out that Israeli forces have conducted 34 attacks on healthcare facilities, resulting in the martyrdom of 73 health workers and injuries to 67 others. Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that the Israeli occupation targeted a center belonging to the Islamic Health Authority in the town of Siddiqin, located in southern Lebanon, earlier this morning. On Friday, Israeli occupation forces fired artillery shells at the Salah Ghandour Hospital in the city of Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, resulting in casualties among healthcare workers Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported.  In detail, Red Cross emergency workers attempted to transfer the wounded from the hospital, however, Israeli occupation forces refused to guarantee the safety of ambulances. The decision to do so was communicated via the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL), which said that the Israeli military command said that the hospital was an "unsafe combat zone." Nine of the 15 healthcare workers operating in the hospital were critically injured and Israeli occupation forces only okayed the transfer of five individuals to hospitals in Saida.  Medical workers evacuated their fallen co-workers using their cars and transferred the remaining casualties to the Tebnine Governmental Hospital, along with residents in the area. 

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/73-healthcare-workers-killed--lebanon-facing-a-health-crisis?utm_source=mango-searchx&utm_medium=exact_title&utm_campaign=lebanon

[azspot]

Genocide is done by attrition. Once a targeted group is stripped of its rights the next steps are the displacement of the population, destruction of the infrastructure and the wholesale killing of civilians. Israel is also attacking and killing international monitors, human rights organizations, aid workers��and United Nations staff, a feature of most genocides. Foreign journalists are being arrested and accused of “aiding the enemy,” while Palestinian journalists are being assassinated and their families wiped out. Israel carries out continuous assaults in Gaza on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), where two-thirds of its facilities have been damaged or destroyed, and 223 of its staff have been killed. It has attacked the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), where peacekeepers have been fired upon, tear gassed and wounded. This tactic replicates the Bosnian Serb attacks in July 1995, which I covered, on the U.N. Protection Force outposts in Srebrenica. The Serbs, who had cut off food deliveries to the Bosnian enclave, resulting in severe malnutrition and starvation, overran the U.N. outposts and took 30 U.N. troops hostage before massacring more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys.

Extermination Works. At First.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Sean Durns

The United States has given copious security assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). In September 2022, the U.S. State Department called the aid “a key component of U.S. Lebanon policy” that “strengthens Lebanon’s sovereignty, secures its borders, counters internal threats and disrupts terrorist facilitation.” This, of course, is an absurdity. The precise opposite is true.

As Tony Badran, a Tablet magazine columnist and longtime analyst of Lebanese affairs observed, “Hezbollah, in fact, is Lebanon.” The terrorist group controls the Levantine state’s borders and ports of entry. Michel Aoun, the last president of Lebanon and commander-in-chief of its armed forces, has declared that Hezbollah’s growing arsenal “is not in contradiction with the state.” As the saying goes: who holds the gun holds the power. And in Lebanon, Hezbollah wields both.

In August 2021, a senior U.S. State Department official testified that the U.S. funded, trained and equipped the LAF to ensure that “they serve as an institutional counterweight to Hezbollah.” But as counterterrorist analyst David Kilcullen noted in a 2022 FDD monograph, an examination of the LAF’s performance since 2006 finds that the period of enhanced U.S. security assistance coincides with “a significant increase in Hezbollah’s influence.” Kilcullen argues that “crisis driven thinking” has dominated U.S. strategy toward Lebanon. It is also fair to lay the charge of naiveté. Washington may have bankrolled the LAF in the hopes that it will serve as a counterweight, but the nation’s armed forces have even colluded with the terror group.

As one Israeli official told the Times of Israel in 2018: “We see them working together, traveling in the same jeeps. Sometimes we see Hezbollah soldiers in LAF vests.” There are numerous other reports of Lebanon’s armed forces assisting Hezbollah. The LAF, it seems, is taking America for a ride. 

Indeed, Lebanon has utterly and completely failed to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions that remain the basis for U.S. and international support.

After the 2006 War between Israel and Hezbollah, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1701 which ordered that the area south of the Litani River be made “free of any armed personnel, assets, and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and [and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNFIL]. But this manifestly has not happened. 

Instead, as the ret. Israeli Gen. Assaf Orion noted in a January 2024 report for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Hezbollah has spent the intervening years building up its capabilities and flagrantly violating the resolution. In fact, Hezbollah’s very existence in Lebanon also violates UN Security Resolution 1559 which, like 1701, calls for Hezbollah to be disarmed.

Washington, however, has failed to recognize these realities. The U.S., France, and others have recently floated plans that would rely on the LAF and UNFIL to take a greater role in southern Lebanon. Yet more of the same is not the answer. The United States must acknowledge reality: its Lebanon policy is failing. And the dire consequences are coming into view. 

[catdotjpeg]

An Israeli tank killed Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah in Lebanon in October by firing two 120mm rounds at a group of “clearly identifiable journalists” in violation of international law, a UN probe has found. The investigation by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon – summarized in a report seen by the Reuters news agency – said its personnel had not recorded any exchange of fire across the border between Israel and Lebanon for more than 40 minutes before the Israeli Merkava tank opened fire. “It is assessed that there was no exchange of fire across the Blue Line at the time of the incident. The reason for the strikes on the journalists is not known,” the report said. Besides killing Abdallah, the two tank rounds also wounded six other journalists at the scene. “The [Israeli military] deplores any injury to uninvolved parties and does not deliberately shoot at civilians, including journalists,” army spokesperson Nir Dinar said. “The [Israeli military] considers the freedom of the press to be of utmost importance while clarifying that being in a warzone is dangerous.”

-- "Israeli tank strike killed ‘clearly identifiable’ Reuters reporter: UN report" by Federica Marsi and Usaid Siddiqui for Al Jazeera, 13 Mar 2024 18:05 GMT

[partisan-by-default]

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, expressed deep alarm over the escalation in southern Lebanon and the impact on civilians, reiterating the need for a cessation of hostilities and negotiations to restore calm.

“UNIFIL peacekeepers feel duty-bound to the mandate given to them by the Security Council, and they feel duty-bound to the population in southern Lebanon,” he told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York, referring to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.

“The peacekeepers are currently staying in their position…Team UNIFIL remains united and committed.”

He added that the mission continues working with partners “to do whatever they can” to protect the population, providing temporary shelter to affected populations in recent weeks and supporting the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

U.N. peacekeepers are staying in their positions on Lebanon’s southern border despite Israel’s request to vacate some areas before it launched its ground operation against Hezbollah militants, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Thursday.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the commander and liaison officers from the U.N. force, known as UNIFIL, also are in constant contact with their counterparts in the Israeli and Lebanese militaries. He called that key to protecting the U.N.’s more than 10,000 peacekeepers.

The U.N. force is “the only channel of communications between the parties,” he told reporters. “The peacekeepers are also working with partners to do what they can to protect the population.”