The Israeli military “repeatedly” fired at UNIFIL headquarters and positions in southern Lebanon, injuring two members of the peacekeeping force, the United Nations says, as Israel presses on with its assault on Hezbollah.
UNIFIL – the UN Interim Force in Lebanon – said on Thursday that two of its peacekeepers were injured after an Israeli tank “fired its weapon” at a guard tower at the group’s headquarters, located in the border area town of Naqoura.
The attack on the tower had caused the two peacekeepers to fall. “The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital,” said UNIFIL in a statement.
The Israeli soldiers also fired on a UN position – named “1-31”- in the village of Labbouneh, “hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system”, it said.
The peacekeeping force reported that it had observed an Israeli military drone flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance.
On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers had “deliberately fired at and disabled” the position’s “monitoring cameras”, it said.
The Israeli military had also “deliberately fired” on a second UN position – named 1-32A – in the border area of Ras Naqoura, where regular meetings had been held before the conflict began, “damaging lighting and a relay station”, said UNIFIL.
Andrea Tenenti, the spokesperson for UNIFIL, has told Al Jazeera that the latest Israeli attack was a “very serious” and concerning development.
Tenenti said UNIFIL was in discussion with Israeli authorities “to understand what happened” but stressed that “targeting peacekeepers is a very serious violation, not only of Resolution 1701 but also of international humanitarian law.”
He said the Israeli military had previously asked UNIFIL peacekeepers “to move from certain positions along the Blue Line, but we decided to stay because it’s important for the UN flag to fly in [the] south of Lebanon”.
“If the situation becomes impossible for the mission to operate in the south of Lebanon … it will be up to the Security Council to decide how to move forward,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which is waging a widening offensive in Lebanon against the Iran-linked Hezbollah armed group.
No casualties were reported in the two attacks on the UN positions, which had taken place on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the Reuters news agency.
Hezbollah said earlier it had targeted an Israeli tank with guided missiles while it was advancing to Ras Naqoura, before attacking an Israeli force with a missile salvo while the force was trying to pull injured soldiers out of the area.
Italy’s defence minister on Thursday slammed the incident as “intolerable”, saying it was “not an accident”.
Guido Crosetto said he “protested” to Israel’s defence minister and summoned the Israeli ambassador over the incident.
“The shooting at the UNIFIL headquarters” and other incidents involving “small arms fire” are “intolerable, they must be carefully and decisively avoided”, Crosetto said in a statement.
France also said it was waiting for explanations from Israel after the UNIFIL troops were targeted.
“France expresses its deep concern following the Israeli shots that hit the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon [UNIFIL] and condemns any attack on the security of UNIFIL,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that none of its 700 troops in the mission had been wounded.
“We await explanations from the Israeli authorities. The protection of peacekeepers is an obligation that applies to all parties to a conflict.”
UNIFIL, which was established in 1978 and expanded following a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, has about 10,500 personnel, with major contributing nations including France, Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia and Ghana.
It has called for a ceasefire since an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah on September 23.
The force said on Sunday that it was “deeply concerned by recent activities” by the Israeli military near a peacekeeper position in southwestern Lebanon, saying that it was “unacceptable to compromise the safety of UN peacekeepers carrying out their Security Council-mandated tasks”.
In a letter to Israel’s military dated October 3 and seen by Reuters, UNIFIL had objected to Israeli military vehicles and troops positioning themselves “in immediate proximity” to UN positions, “thereby endangering the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and premises”.
On Thursday, UNIFIL reminded the Israeli military that any “deliberate attack” on peacekeepers is “a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701”.
UNIFIL said it was following up “on these matters” with the Israeli military.
