Israeli fire on UN peacekeepers 'inadmissible act, for which there is no justification': EU foreign policy chief

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - The EU foreign policy chief has condemned Israeli fire on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon early Thursday, as Israel presses on with its air and ground assault in the Middle Eastern country.

“We condemn this inadmissible act, for which there is no justification,” Josep Borell said, adding that another "line has been dangerously crossed in Lebanon.”

“The EU reiterates its full support to UNIFIL, to its UNSC-mandated mission & its troops,” he added.

“This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall,” the UN said in a statement earlier.

UN peacekeepers are present in south Lebanon to support a return to stability under a 2006 Security Council mandate. Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701.

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

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed over 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

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