Lebanon lodges complaint against Israel to Security Council over targeting UNIFIL

By Anadolu staff

BEIRUT (AA) - Lebanon submitted a formal complaint Monday to the UN Security Council against Israel's repeated targeting of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

According to the official Lebanese National News Agency, Lebanon's mission to the UN in New York filed the complaint under the instructions of Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib to both the UN Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The Lebanese diplomatic mission said the Israeli attack on UNIFIL is "a dangerous precedent and a blatant violation of the international law," that comes to jeopardize UNIFIL's mission.

It urged for "a decisive and firm stance" against those attacks that "mount to war crimes," and hold Israel accountable for its violations to prevent their repetition.

Israeli tanks on Sunday forced entry into one of UNIFIL's positions, latest in a series of violations and attacks by the Israeli military, which injured several peacekeeping troops.

Last week, four UNIFIL peacekeepers were injured by Israeli army's shelling on their posts in southern Lebanon.

UNIFIL was established as interim force in 1978 to help restore peace in the region and as a confirmation of Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,542 people, injuring over 4,555 others, and displacing more than 1.34 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 nearly 42,300 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 Ahmed Asmar