The Irish armed forces have participated in UN peacekeeping missions for over 60 years. Since 1958, Ireland has sent troops to global conflicts on almost every continent. We have had a peacekeeping battalion with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) in south Lebanon on a continuous basis since 1978. The relationship is so deep-rooted that in the Irish area of operations, close to the border with Israel, there are local Lebanese people who speak English with broad Irish accents.
As Israel intensifies its current ground assault in Lebanon, 380 Irish troops have found themselves in direct confrontation with the might of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). At UN position 6-52, near the border village of Maroun al-Ras, a platoon of 33 Irish troops was surrounded and isolated from UN headquarters by an IDF unit. Israeli troops have attempted to intimidate and threaten the young Irish men and women at 6-52 by positioning Merkava battle tanks on the perimeter of the post, with their 120mm main armaments aimed directly at them. A neighbouring Irish/Polish platoon at position 6-50 has witnessed Israeli forces destroying the small town of Yaroun during fierce fighting with Hezbollah.
None of this is new for the Irish. Over the decades, as peacekeepers, we have acted as de facto human shields, trying to protect innocent Lebanese civilians from Hezbollah on one hand and the IDF on the other. As neutral observers and first responders, we have lost almost 50 troops in Lebanon. Approximately 50% of our casualties have been inflicted by Islamist resistance groups such as Hezbollah – the other 50% by the IDF and their paramilitary proxies in the area. Most recently, Pte Seán Rooney was killed in December 2022; a Lebanese military tribunal accused five members of Hezbollah.
After Hamas’s horrific attack on 7 October last year, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets and missiles into northern Israel. Hezbollah, like Hamas – in direct contravention of the Geneva conventions – has targeted Israeli towns and villages from Haifa on the Mediterranean coast across to Kiryat Shmona and Tiberias. This has led to the internal displacement of more than 60,000 Israeli civilians, seeking to escape these barrages. There is a well-founded fear among many Israelis that Hezbollah might also mount a cross-border marauding attack on innocent men, women and children in northern Israeli settlements, similar to the Hamas attacks.
For its part, the IDF, at Netanyahu’s direction, has mounted a savage campaign of retaliation against Hamas in Gaza. In the conduct of its operations, the IDF appears to have has repeatedly and consistently broken the international laws of armed conflict; it has slaughtered more than 40,000 Gazans and maimed many tens of thousands more. The vast majority of these casualties have been innocent Palestinians, including almost 20,000 women and children.
For the Irish deployed to Unifil, as events unfold it is abundantly clear that the IDF is preparing to replicate its brutal assault on Gaza in Lebanon. The death toll in Lebanon, mostly among innocent civilians, already exceeds 2,000. This represents the same casualty rate as experienced in Gaza and has the potential to plunge Lebanon into the abyss. It also carries with it the risk of a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran. This is a moment of great danger for the 10,000 troops deployed to Unifil and particularly for the Irish deployed on the frontline along Israel’s advance.
I speak from experience, having served as an Irish peacekeeper in Lebanon. As a young officer in 1996, during Israel’s notorious operation Grapes of Wrath, I witnessed the destruction of the small villages and towns in our area of operation. Then, as now, the most vulnerable Lebanese civilians were unable to evacuate or flee the Israeli onslaught. Elderly people, disabled people and young mothers nursing infants were unable to escape.
In the midst of the destruction, we took almost 200 civilians into our UN position. We shared our meagre rations, water and medical supplies with these terrified people. Our neighbouring UN position at the village of Qana also took in civilians. However, it was directly targeted by the IDF and over 100 men, women and children were slaughtered there in shelling on 18 April 1996.
The situation in Lebanon is much worse today. The IDF has for the most part abandoned the traditional military doctrine of “advance to contact” operations, where armies tactically respond to enemy fire. The IDF in Gaza and now Lebanon is operating what military analysts term a doctrine of “reconnaissance by fire”, where it pre-emptively opens fire on everything and everyone its forces encounter in their advance to deter ambushes. In this, they do not distinguish between either Hamas and Hezbollah targets and civilians or civilian objects. Hence the shockingly high civilian casualty rates. As I write, the IDF has opened fire on UN positions injuring five peacekeepers.
In all of its previous incursions into Lebanon, the IDF has killed UN peacekeepers and UN observers. All that the Irish can do is observe, record and report the actions of all parties to the conflict. They will hope to save lives and they will hope to survive and return home to their families. Blessed are the peacekeepers.
Tom Clonan is an independent senator in the Irish parliament and a retired army officer
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