The Israeli military, which has attacked UNIFIL positions several times, denies responsibility despite the footage.
UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have reported another Israeli attack on their positions as ground and air attacks on Lebanon continue to take lives.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Friday that two Israeli military excavators and a bulldozer had destroyed a fence and part of a concrete structure at the UN base in Ras Nakoura a day earlier.
Despite UNIFIL publishing footage of the incident online, Israeli forces denied any activity after UN forces approached the protest.
UNIFIL said, referring to a UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, that the Israeli military’s “deliberate and direct destruction of clearly identifiable UNIFIL property violates international law and Resolution 1701.” This is a gross violation of.
statement:
Yesterday, two IDF excavators and an IDF bulldozer destroyed a fence and part of a concrete structure at a UNIFIL position in Ras Nakoura. In response to our immediate protest, the IDF denied that any activity was taking place inside the UNIFIL position. pic.twitter.com/gQm02hjNTG
– UNIFIL (@UNIFIL_) 8 November 2024
Since September 30, Israel has repeatedly demanded that UN peacekeepers vacate their internationally mandated compound so that it can proceed more freely with its ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL deputy spokesperson Candice Ardeel told Al Jazeera on Friday that the peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon has been targeted 40 times since then.
Ardeel said eight of those attacks were confirmed to have originated from the Israeli military. Peacekeepers have been injured and property destroyed in previous attacks.
Israel also requested that UNIFIL evacuate 29 sites near the Blue Line, the U.N.-determined evacuation line between Israel and Lebanon, Ardeel said. Earlier, UNIFIL said Israeli forces were destroying and removing blue barrels marking the Blue Line.
“Yesterday’s incident, like seven other similar incidents, is not a case of peacekeepers caught in the crossfire, but a case of deliberate and direct action by the Israeli military,” UNIFIL said.
UNIFIL convoy ‘in danger’
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday that the bloc condemns an “incident that endangered a UNIFIL convoy and injured several peacekeepers” as six Malaysian peacekeepers were killed in an Israeli drone strike on Thursday. Three Lebanese people in a car were killed, including those injured. nearby.
Borrell’s statement did not directly name Israel and said that “all parties must ensure the safety of UN personnel and allow them to carry out their vital missions under UNIFIL’s mandate”.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces are stepping up their ground campaign in southern Lebanon and carrying out airstrikes across the country as Hezbollah continues to fire rockets and launch drones into Israel.
Two buildings were hit in the ancient city of Tire on Friday night, killing at least three people and wounding more than 30, in one of the latest Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health announced that at least 15 people were killed and 69 injured as a result of Israeli attacks on Thursday.
The ministry said at least 3,117 people have been killed and 13,888 injured in Israeli strikes in Lebanon since October last year. Of these, 617 are women and 192 are children.
The casualties include 180 health workers. The ministry said hospitals have been attacked 65 times.
Israeli attacks also continue on the Gaza Strip, where more than 43,000 people have been killed since October last year, about 70 percent of them children and women, according to the United Nations. This comes as famine looms in northern Gaza, which has been under siege for more than a month.
