UN mission says Israeli tanks forcibly entered base in southern Lebanon | Lebanon | The Guardian

Oct 14, 2024

Unifil seeks explanation from IDF for ‘shocking violations’ while Netanyahu urges peacekeepers to withdraw

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has said two Israeli tanks destroyed a gate and forcibly entered a base in the south of the country as Israel’s ground operation against Hezbollah moved deeper into Lebanese territory.

The incident in Ramyah on Sunday morning was the latest in a string of violations that Unifil, the UN force deployed since 1978 to southern Lebanon, has blamed on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

After the tanks left, shells exploded about 100 metres from the base, and the ensuing smoke left 15 staffers needing medical treatment for unusual symptoms despite the use of gas masks. Unifil also accused the Israeli military of holding up a logistics convoy.

In a statement released late on Sunday, the Israeli military said a Merkava tank had been trying to evacuate injured soldiers and had backed into the Unifil post accidentally.

Five peacekeepers have been injured since Friday as Israeli ground troops have begun to advance farther north in Lebanon after two weeks of intense fighting and airstrikes. The death toll in the small Mediterranean country now stands at more than 1,400 since late September, after intense Israeli airstrikes overnight on the centre of the southern city of Nabatieh.

Unifil said it had requested an explanation from the IDF for what it called “shocking violations”.

In a videoed statement addressed to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterated Israeli calls for Unifil troops to evacuate.

“The time has come for you to withdraw Unifil from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones,” he said. “The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields.”

He later said on X: “Israel will make every effort to prevent Unifil casualties and will do what it takes to win the war.”

Late on Sunday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said: “Unifil peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.

“The secretary-general reiterates that Unifil personnel and its premises must never be targeted. Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime,” he said.

Israel argues that Unifil has failed in its mission to uphold a UN resolution from two decades ago that was supposed to ensure that Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-allied Lebanese militia, withdrew from the border area.

In the three weeks since a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into all-out war, the 10,000-strong Unifil force from 50 different countries has refused to leave 29 positions across southern Lebanon, citing the same UN resolution, which ensures freedom of movement for its staff.

Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on medics and first responders as well as Unifil peacekeepers since Israel invaded Lebanon on 1 October, amid growing international opprobrium.

Hezbollah had begun firing on Israel the day after Hamas’s 7 October attack that triggered the new war, ostensibly in solidarity with the Palestinian group. The IDF accuses Hezbollah of using ambulances to carry fighters and weapons and says Hezbollah operates in the vicinity of the peacekeepers, but has not provided evidence.

Relations between Israel and the UN, frosty for decades, have reached a nadir since the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023. In territory under its control, Israel is attempting to close down Unrwa, the world body’s agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing it of routinely employing Hamas operatives. The UN fired nine staff members implicated in the 7 October attack but an investigation stressed that Israel had not provided evidence for its main allegations.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, reiterated on Sunday that Guterres was barred from entering the country due to what Katz described as “antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct”.

Elsewhere in Lebanon, at least three people were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli airstrikes overnight in which mosques and residential buildings were targeted, after strikes on several villages on Saturday killed 15. The IDF said it had hit 200 Hezbollah sites over the past 24 hours.

Hezbollah responded with rocket barrages fired across northern and central Israel on Sunday, most of which were intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems. Israel’s N12 News television said at least 67 people were wounded after what Hezbollah said was its attack on a camp of the Israeli military’s Golani Brigade in Binyamina, northern Israel.

Also over the weekend, Israel ordered residents of another 23 villages across southern Lebanon to evacuate north. About 1.2 million people – a quarter of the population – have been driven from their homes since fighting escalated three weeks ago when Israel killed much of Hezbollah’s leadership in airstrikes, including its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. Israeli evacuation directives now cover a quarter of the country.

In the Gaza Strip, fierce fighting in the Jabaliya area of Gaza City that the UN estimates has left 400,000 people trapped with dwindling water and food supplies entered a second week. The World Food Programme, the UN food agency, reported on Saturday that no food aid had reached northern Gaza since 1 October, raising new fears of famine and extreme hunger.

An Israeli strike on the central town of Deir al-Balah on Sunday killed a family of eight, local medics said.

The region is still bracing for an anticipated Israeli response to an unprecedented missile attack by Iran two weeks ago, launched in support of its Lebanese ally after Israel’s ground invasion.

NBC reported on Saturday that US officials believed Israel had narrowed down targets to military and energy infrastructure. Miscalculation could propel Iran and Israel into a full-scale war. The US, Israel’s staunch ally, is wary of being drawn into the fighting and of negative impacts on the global oil industry.

In a social media post, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Sunday there were “no red lines” for Tehran on the issue of defending itself, and indirectly threatened US forces against operating in Israel.

“The US has been delivering record amount of arms to Israel,” he said on X. “It is now also putting lives of its troops at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel.

“While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests.”

Later on Sunday, the Pentagon confirmed that the US would send a sophisticated anti-missile system known as Thaad and operator troops to Israel to protect from missile attacks such as those launched against the Jewish state by Iran in April and September.