Irish defense forces chief slams Israeli strikes on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon

By Esra Tekin

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ireland's defense forces chief of staff on Friday criticized Israel’s latest attack near a UN peacekeeping mission position in southern Lebanon, calling it “a direct fire.”

“A round of a tank into an observer tower, which is a very small target has to be very deliberate, and it is a direct fire,” Sean Clancy said at RTE News.

“So, from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act, it is a direct act,” he added.

When asked whether he believed Israel's assertion that the injuries were an accidental result of targeting Hezbollah positions, Lt. Gen. Sean Clancy expressed skepticism, stating that he did not.

On the injury of peacekeepers, Clancy said: “That is of grave concern because in my view that is a clear violation, an egregious violation in my view."

He called Israel’s attacks on UN peacekeepers attacks on the global community, urging the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt its attacks.

Israeli forces early Friday shelled an observation post belonging to UN peacekeepers at its headquarters in Naqoura in southern Lebanon, wounding two peacekeepers from the Sri Lankan contingent, according to Lebanon's state National News Agency.

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

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 42,100 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 by launching a ground incursion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.