France deeply concerned over Israeli firing on UN peacekeepers’ positions in Lebanon

By Esra Taskin

PARIS (AA) - France expressed grave concern Thursday after Israeli forces fired on UN peacekeepers’ positions in Lebanon.

The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that no French nationals were wounded during the targeting of the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Naqoura, which is close to the Lebanese-Israeli border

UNIFIL said earlier that the headquarters and other sites have been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces, leaving two peacekeepers injured.

The ministry said it is awaiting an explanation from the Israeli authorities on the attack.

The protection of peacekeepers is an obligation that applies to all parties to a conflict, said the statement.

It said France calls on the parties to respect this obligation, reiterating the need for an immediate and lasting cease-fire in Lebanon that will allow for the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701.

- Netanyahu’s remarks are a 'provocation'

Christophe Lemoine, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said that UNIFIL plays a key role in de-escalation in the region.

"We tell the Israelis: the war must stop...Lebanon cannot be a new Gaza," he said during a weekly press conference in Paris.

Asked whether France is worried about the security of French personnel in the region following a warning by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Lebanon could face “destruction like Gaza” if its people do not "free" their country from Hezbollah, Lemoine said this is a "provocation."

"If this provocation were to materialize, it would throw Lebanon, a friendly country of France and currently in a fragile state, into chaos," he said in response to a question from Anadolu, adding that in such a scenario, Israel would face much greater security problems than those that existed prior to such attacks on Lebanon.

Pressed on why France ruled out halting licenses related to the delivery of fire control system equipment to Israel, Lemoine said that Paris does not ship weapons used against civilians, especially the people in Gaza.

He said they also do not allow the export of weapons or missiles, but shipments are limited to parts for military equipment.

Israel has been mounting massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,323 people, injuring over 3,700 others and displacing more than 1.2 million.

The aerial campaign is an escalation in a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Israel’s brutal offensive against the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas last October.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East is on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching a ground invasion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.