Beirut denounces Israel's deliberate attack on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon

By Wassim Seifeddine

BEIRUT (AA) – The Lebanese Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned Israel's repeated attacks on the UN peacekeeping force, calling them a serious precedent that undermines international legitimacy.

The ministry issued a statement after two Sri Lankan soldiers were injured in an Israeli tank shelling on a UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) observation tower in Naqoura, southern Lebanon, on Friday morning.

The ministry denounced "the systematic and deliberate targeting of UNIFIL forces."

It outlined how "the repeated Israeli attacks against peacekeeping forces and the illegal demands for their withdrawal from southern Lebanon, contrary to the mandate set by the UN Security Council, constitute a serious precedent."

UNIFIL's command center in Naqoura has been targeted by Israeli military artillery for the second time in three days.

On Thursday, the UN peacekeeping force said UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura and several of its troops’ positions were repeatedly shelled by Israeli forces, injuring two troops.

The statement confirmed that Israel's “violation of international legitimacy, non-compliance with international laws and treaties, humanitarian law, may constitute a war crime, in addition to its blatant and continuous violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”

"These deliberate aggressions pose a severe danger to the safety and security of UNIFIL forces, for which Israel bears responsibility,” the ministry warned.

The ministry demanded that “the UN Security Council, the international community, and the countries contributing to UNIFIL's mission call for an investigation into the matter and take a firm and resolute stance against these aggressions, condemning them strongly.”

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,351 people, injuring over 3,800 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed over 42,000 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara