UPDATE - Macron says France not to 'tolerate' repeated Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon

UPDATES WITH REMARKS FROM PRIME MINISTERS OF SPAIN, GREECE, ITALY, MALTA; MINOR EDITS

By Nur Asena Erturk

France’s president on Friday condemned Israel’s recent attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

“It is totally unacceptable to see UNIFIL troops being deliberately targeted by Israeli army forces. We condemn it, we do not tolerate it, and we will not tolerate that it is being repeated,” Emmanuel Macron told a joint news conference following a summit of Med9, an alliance of nine EU Mediterranean nations.

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

Two peacekeepers were also injured in a similar attack on Thursday.

Macron also renewed the call for a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, which he described as “indispensable.”

He also said a call to stop providing arms to the conflict zone would provide unique leverage to end the conflict, adding that this is “not a call for disarming Israel,” but a call for “stopping all additional destabilization in this part of the world.”

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, for his part, described the Israeli attack as “completely unacceptable and deplorable,” and renewed his call for a cease-fire in the region.

He stressed that the European Union should “clearly demand a cease-fire” in its next council meeting.
Sanchez also backed Macron’s call for suspending arms transport to the conflict zone.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: “We need to make sure that southern Lebanon does not become a new Gaza.”

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also condemned the Israeli attacks on UNIFIL.

Malta shared fellow Mediterranean countries’ opinions, with Prime Minister Robert Abela saying that the “moral imperative” was “to advocate for a two-state solution as a path to lasting peace and reconstruction.”

He said Malta is committed to promoting diplomacy, and urged the international community to take concrete actions.

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